Thomas Blenstone Petitioner

• Place: Manchester
• Role: Demonstrator,Injured,Petitioner

Injuries sustained at Peterloo caused incapacity to work resulting in becoming an inmate at Warrington Workhouse.

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Petition of Thomas Blenstone, (formerly of Manchester), Warrington.

House of Commons, Votes and Proceedings, 15^th May 1821.

 

A petition of Thomas Blenstone, formerly of Manchester, but now a pauper in the workhouse in Warrington, Lancashire, was presented, and read; setting forth, that the petitioner, who is 76 years of age, attend the meeting at Manchester on the 16^th of August 1819; when, just as he entered the area where the meeting was held, the petitioner was without any provocation on his part, rode over by a band of Yeomanry Cavalry and was trampled on by their horses; the petitioner had both his arms broken, his head was dreadfully cut and lacerated, and his whole body severely bruised; the petitioner was conveyed in a senseless state to the infirmary, where he remained seven weeks, and was then discharged, although unable to lift his food to his mouth; notwithstanding his advanced age, previous to the dreadful 16^th of August the petitioner, by the blessing of Almighty God, was enabled to earn an honest livelihood, but since that time he has been unable to work, and is now doomed to drag out a wretched existence in a parish workhouse; as the petitioner verily believes that no breach of the peace was committed by the people at the aforesaid meeting to justify the cruel and dreadful carnage made by the Yeomanry Cavalry, he humbly prays, that the House will be pleased to institute an inquiry into the proceedings which took place at the time and place before-mentioned.

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