William Harrison Eyewitness Account

• Place: Oldham
• Role: Demonstrator
• Occupation: Cotton Spinner

Walked from Oldham with wife and child. From the higher side of the hustings he saw a disorganised cavalry advance, with the yeomanry cutting people with their swords and constables tearing down banners. Talks about women and girls in white walking. Drilling on Oldham Edge. There is also mention of a play in Oldham, recreating events of the day.

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William Harrison sworn: examined by Mr. Blackburne.
Q. You are, I believe, a cotton spinner, and live at Oldham?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you do so in August, 1819?
A. I lived at Oldham; I was born at Oldham.
Q. Did you go with a company of your townsmen from Oldham to Manchester on that day?
A. Yes.
Q. What time did you set off from Oldham?
A. Between eight and nine o'clock.
Q. And arrived at Manchester?
A. Some little before twelve, as near as I can guess.
Q. The distance is seven miles?
A. Seven to New Cross, and one to the ground.
Q. How many were there?
A. Four divisions—the Lees, Moseley, Royton, and Oldham.
Q. How many?
A. The parties together met at Oldham.
Q. You still have not told me how many there were; how many do you think?
A. About five or six thousand when they arrived at Manchester.
Q. All men?
A. No, women; I had a child there a year old.
Q. Your wife and child went?
A. With me along.
Mr. Justice Holroyd.—She went with you?
A. Yes, and many besides on the road.
Q. Will you tell us what proportion of women were among this five or six thousand?
A. There were, as near as I can think, near 1,000 women; young girls, some thirteen, some ten years old.
Q. About 1,000?
A. I think in our procession from Oldham; some dressed in white.
Q. When you went had you any sticks with you?
A. No; we came up without sticks.
Q. Had any others sticks who went with you?
A. Some old men: when walking in our country, they usually take sticks with them.
Q. Now, when you got to New Cross at Manchester, did any thing there take place?
A. We stopped there, and called out one to another: we met four people on horseback, we thought they were Magistrates; we thought something was hatching then.
Q. What became of the sticks then?
A. We called out one to another, those who had sticks to throw them away.
Q. Was that done?
A. I saw some of the sticks in the company I was in, thrown away at the New Cross.
Q. I think you say New Cross is a mile from the place of meeting?
A. It is so called from Peter's Field.
Q. Now when you got on to the field, where did you take your position?
A. The higher side of the hustings.
Q. Near where?
A. It stood one part to Mr. Buxton's house; I stood on the higher side of the stage.
Q. Towards Mr. Buxton's house?
A. Yes; a little towards Mr. Buxton's house.
Q. How, with regard to Windmill-street?
A. I was opposite, I think, to the Quakers' Chapel, on the higher side of the hustings, in a line to it.
Q. How near was you to the hustings?
A. Seven or eight yards on the higher side, as near as I can think.
Q. Did you see the cavalry come on to the field?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you see them form before Mr. Buxton's house?
A. Yes; I saw them come down; but there were such confusion by their coming with such speed, they could not form regularly.
Q. Where the Magistrates were?
A. Where the Magistrates were.
Q. Did you see them come from thence towards the hustings?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you see them get up to the hustings?
A. Yes; I saw them get up to the hustings.
Q. As you saw them set out and get up to the hustings, tell us what they did in their way.
A. I will, to the best of my knowledge.
Q. Tell us what you saw?
A. I could see them cutting the people, waving their swords backwards and forwards, this way (flourishing his arm); there were some with black spots on them, and some with silver tops.
Q. Well?
A. I saw the constables begin to attack the banners.
Q. Where were the banners?
A. Fixed in a circle round the hustings.
Q. Were they upon the ground, or on the cart?
A. Those on the ground were round the hustings with staves of a great length.
Q. They attacked those who held them?
A. Those who held them, the constables began to take them from.
Q. Where were the cavalry at this time?
A. The constables and cavalry joined, together round the hustings then.
Q. Did you see any body taken from the hustings?
A. No; I did not see any body taken from the hustings, I made my escape.
Q. In making your escape which course did you take?
A. The contrary course from Mr. Buxton's house, a street coming from the Exchange.
Q. Do you know whether it was Deansgate-street?
A. I have not much acquaintance with the streets.
Q. Is the Exchange near Deansgate-street?
A. I went opposite the Exchange.
Q. You left the field?
A. I left the field then.

Cross-examined by Mr. Littledale,
Q. You are a cotton-spinner?
A. Yes.
Q. Whose factory are you in?
A. Thomas Cosen's, of Oldham.
Q. What wages did you get a week at that time?
A. Well, about twenty shillings.
Q. Did it depend upon the work you did?
A. It depended on the work I did.
Q. Were the other men in the factory paid at the same rate?
A. Yes; they were all paid alike, but there are different sorts of work, more of some sorts than others, so that it makes a difference in wages.
Q. How many days did you work; I believe you generally took Mondays and Tuesdays for holidays, about that time?
A. Not at that time; at one time of day they used to do so.
Q. Did you and the other people in the factory work six days in the week?
A. They generally worked six days in the week.
Q. At that time?
A. Yes.
Q. You worked, you say, six days; could you not make more than twenty shillings?
A. I was not bound to kill myself or hurt my health.
Q. But without killing yourself or hurting your health?
A. That is the average of the year round, as near as I can state.
Q. Where was the place the Oldham people used to meet to drill, to learn the step?
A. I know but little about the drill; I did once go, but it was over when I got there.
Q. When was it? was it the night of the fifteenth—the night before you went to Manchester, or the week before?
A. The Sunday before.
Q. There was to have been a meeting on the ninth, on a Monday?
A. That was adjourned.
Q. Did you go on the ninth?
A. No.
Q. Did you go to the drilling on the eighth, when you went and found they were gone; when was it?
A. I have heard ------
Q. The time you found they were gone, was it the Sunday before the meeting, or the Sunday before the ninth?
A. I believe it was a fortnight before; I believe I went to the White Moss when Murray was dead wounded.
Q. A fortnight before the sixteenth?
A. Yes.
Q. Murray was a constable?
A. I have heard say he was a spy.
Q. You found that he was dead wounded?
A. He was gone, and they told me it was at three o'clock he went.
Q. Nearly dead?
A. No, he walked home; he-was seen afterwards staring out of the window; he was alive on the sixteenth August -------- who went with me said so.
Q. Staring out of the window; did you not stop at a house which they told you was Murray's house?
A. I will not swear I did.
Q. You can bring it to your recollection?
A. I cannot recollect; it was called Murray's.
Q. Was it the same Murray who was wounded at the White Moss?
A. We stopped at the New Cross, and went along to the ground.
Q. After you left the New Cross, did you not stop at a person's house?
A. No, we did not.
Q. Will you swear you did not?
A. To the best of my knowledge.
Q. Then you never attended this meeting; you said you went and they were gone?
A. I went the Sunday before.
Q. But you went there?
A. I went, but it was mere nonsense; thirty or forty men, one division, some boys ten years old, some as old as you, some old men, well and ill.
Q. There were thirty or forty in a company, this was at the drilling?
A. Not at White Moss; I went to White Moss; but it was all nonsense.
Q. That was the fortnight before the meeting at Manchester?
A. Yes.
Q. How many people did you see in the morning?
A. I saw one who came from Manchester, who came with Murray; as the people came along he set his leg out to throw the people down.
Q. I only want to know how many companies were drilled?
A. Three or four, or so on.
Q. Of thirty or forty each?
A. To the best of my knowledge.
Q. You saw these people learning a step?
A. Yes, marching about.
Q. They had a bugle?
A. No.
Q. Was the word of command given, what they were to do—to fire?
A. No; I never heard that word of command given in my life.
Q What -word of command was given?
A. "Stand at ease," "as you were” and such like as that.
Q. Was there a person who gave the word to each company separately, or to all that were there?
A. Sometimes one to a company; that it was all mere nonsense.
Q. Sometimes a man to each company: did it sometimes happen that one gave the word to all?
A. No; I never see that.
Q. This was at White Moss, the morning Murray was wounded; where was-the place where it was mere nonsense?
A. The top of Oldham Edge.
Q. When was it?
A. Perhaps a week or a fortnight before the time at the White Moss.
Q. At what time of the night or morning did you go to Oldham Edge?
A. A little before five in the morning.
Q. What day of the week?
A. On a Sunday.
Q. How many companies assembled to drill?
A. Only one company there.
Q. How many were there in the company?
A. About forty.
Q. What was the name of the man who commanded the company?
A. I cannot say.
Q. Did you march about?
A. We marched about half a mile down a lane.
Q. Did they march in ranks as soldiers do?
A. They did not march as soldiers do, for they had not common sense to do it; such low boys, so little, thirteen or fourteen years of age.
Q. Was you the only man, the only grown-up man there?
A. Some, I told you, were eighteen or sixteen.
Q. And some as old as you are?
A. Some grown up; different descriptions of people, but chiefly boys.
Q. You marched along with them?
A. I went a little down the road.
Q. You marched a little way with them?
A. Yes.
Q. When you got half a mile down the lane, what did you do?
A. I went home.
Q,. Did you march according to the word of command?
A. There was no regular order; it was mere nonsense.
Q. Was the word of command given?
A. Sometimes they marched, sometimes they halted, treading on one another's heels—no regular order at all.
Q. What was the regular word?
A. "Quick march” and "halt," and such as that.
Q. "Halt"?
A. Yes; "halt," and such as that kind.
Q. Did you not march or halt according to the word of command ?
A. Sometimes we did, and sometimes we laughed at them.
Q. At the time you was not marching, was not the word of command given, "stand at ease"?
A. Sometimes that was given when we were stopped.
Q. Was not there sometimes the word given," Fire."?
A. Nothing of the kind; I never heard that in my life; I never did, never.
Q. You have told us of two places you were at, the White Moss and Oldham Edge; you were also at the Tandle Drills?
A. I was not at the Tandle Drills.
Q. You was never at any but what you call nonsense?
A. No.
Q. You have told us there were five or six thousand together?
A. As near as I could think.
Q. How many of these people that marched with you into Manchester, had you seen at these drillings?
A. I do not know that I had seen one of them.
Q. Recollect whether a great many of these you saw at Oldham Edge and White Moss, did not compose a part.
A. There were those I had seen at Oldham Edge, but no word of command was given.
Q. Several of the people you saw at Oldham Edge, formed part of the people who marched to Manchester?
A. They went with them.
Q. The people who went to the drill?
A. The people who went with me to Oldham Edge.
Q. How many were there of the people you saw at White Moss?
A I do not recollect any I saw at White Moss.
Q. You say there were four divisions: the Oldham, Lees, Royton, and Moseley; you went to the Oldham division?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you command that division?
A. I never was a soldier in my life.
Q. The divisions were commanded by different people?
A. No, they were not.
Q. You do not mean to say there was no word of command, till you got to Oldham?
A. The banners went before; when the banners stopped we stopped: there were girls dressed in white.
Q. Did the girls carry all the banners?
A. About twenty girls carried the Failsworth banner.
Q. That was not yours?
A. That was a division we took up between Oldham and Manchester.
Q. Twenty girls carried the Failsworth banner?
A. As near as I can recollect.
Q. But the banner was held by men, not the girls?
A. Only one; they could walk after it, it was a light thing.
Q. What were the letters on the Failsworth banner?
A. I cannot say.
Q. Did you carry the Oldham banner?
A. I never touched it.
Q: Had you more than one banner for Oldham?
A. One colour and the cap of liberty, all fixed on one staff.
Q. What was the inscription of the Oldham banner?
A. "Major Cartwright's Bill," and "the Election by Ballott."
Q. What was the inscription on the Lees banner?
A. I think "Representation:" I cannot justly say; something of that kind.
Q. Was it "Equal representation or death"?
A. It might be: I did not see till I got on ground; it might be something of that kind.
Q. Was that the black flag?
A. Yes; I believe it was.
Q. What was the inscription on the Mosely flag?
A. I cannot say: they were stationed round; I only saw by a little wind that blew them.
Q. You can say what writing it had on?
A. I cannot say what writing it had on.
Q. What had Royton?
A. I cannot say.
Q. Do you not remember on one “Let us die like men, and not be sold like slaves"?
A. I did not see it.
Q. "No Corn Laws"?
A. I believe I saw something of that kind.
Q. You mean you did see it.
A. To the best of my knowledge.
Q. You do not remember what township?
A. I cannot say what the Oldham colour was, for I never thought of it since.
Q. What music had you; a drum and fifes, and bugles?
A. We had no drum; there were that had a drum.
Q. You had fifes?
A. No fifes.
Q. You had bugles?
A. Something of a kind of trumpet.
Q. A bugle?
A. A bugle, or what they call a trumpet; I am no ways acquainted with nothing of that sort.
Q. By what street did you first come to Manchester?
A. We went down the Shudehill, and then past the Exchange.
Q. Well?
A. I had not been at Manchester but once or twice before this job happened.
Q. Did you go by the nearest road?
A. It might be the nearest or furthest, I cannot tell.
Q. You have never been at the place since, but you have seen it represented; you have had a meeting where every thing was done over again: was there not a play where every thing that passed was done over again?
A. I have never seen it.
Q. Last Sunday was there not a meeting at Oldham, to represent what occurred at Manchester on the sixteenth of August?
A. I was not there.
Q. Do you not know that many were collected there?
A. I was not there.
Q. You say you do not know whether you went the nearest way or by a circuitous route?
A. I went past the Exchange to the ground.
Q. Was that the nearest way from Oldham?
A. I cannot say.
Re-examined by Mr. Blackburne.
Q. You said you went to Oldham Edge?
A. Yes.
Q. How far is that?
A. Nearly a mile.
Q. The public road?
A. Yes.
Q. Was this the place where the women and banners were?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you not see children in arms—in their mother's arms.
A. Oh! yes; women with children in their arms plenty, watching.
Q. Was it dark?
A. It was day-light.
Mr. Justice Holroyd.—Q. What do you mean by watching?
A. Looking at them, viewing them, or looking.
Q. Where does this Oldham Edge lead to?
A. It used to be the road to Roachdale or Rochdale, or what they call it; the public road.
Q. You say at this time you earned twenty shillings a week?
A. Yes.
Q. Could you have done it if you had spent your days in idleness?
A. No.
Q. If you had played Mondays and Tuesdays?
A. No.

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