William Garety Petitioner

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

He was knocked down and received a sabre blow to the back of the neck. After being trampled, was able to drag himself to a nearby yard, where he and others were later chased back out again.

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Petition of William Garety of Manchester

House of Commons, Votes and Proceedings, 15 May 1821

 

A Petitioner of William Garety, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, was presented, and read; setting forth, That at the Meeting held in Manchester on the 16^th of August, 1819, the Petitioner stood near to the hustings, and had a perfect view of the assembled multitude, who were perfectly peaceable and orderly; the Petitioner saw the Cavalry commence a most furious attack upon the Meeting, laying about them with their sabres in all directions; the Petitioner would have escaped instantly, but found it impossible from the confusion and pressure created by the attack of the Yeomanry Cavalry; the Petitioner was knocked down by the horses of the Yeomanry, and while lying on the ground one of the Cavalry gave the Petitioner a desperate cut on the back of the neck with a sabre, at the same time using the most horrid oaths and imprecations; the Petitioner was so severely bruised that it was with difficulty he could crawl to an adjoining house, into which the Petitioner was admitted, and conveyed into a back yard; the Petitioner had not been many minutes before the dead body of a woman was brought into the same yard; shortly after which another woman, bleeding profusely, and quite speechless, was brought in, as also a young man with his thigh broken; in another part of the ground the Petitioner saw a woman of the name of Martha Whitaker lying weltering in her blood; the Petitioner was again driven from this retreat by the Yeomanry, who forced their way into the yard, and began cutting at some people who had taken refuge there as well as the Petitioner; the Petitioner humbly prays, That the House would be pleased to cause an inquiry to be made into this horrid outrage.

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