Michael Gorman – Edward Curran

My GGGrandfather was John Curran b. 1801 in Ireland and came to Manchester in 1818 to work as a silk weaver and lived in the Ancoats/New Cross district – Pott Street. He was at Peterloo and subsequently wounded on the evening of 16 April 1819 as the militia combed the streets of Manchester (and presumably dealt with any resistance in the same way they had dealt with the protest earlier). As I mentioned yesterday John had to give up being a silk weaver and got a job as a bricksetter with his brother-in-law. He married Mary McCall in 1830 – but, for some reason, was unable to have children until 1843. He died in 1849.

His brother, Edward Curran, was also at Peterloo and a Silk Weaver, living in Heyrod Street, Ancoats. He was radicalised by the events of 1819 (not least the wounding of his brother) and appears in the press as the Secretary of the Manchester & Salford Catholic Association by 1829 – arguing (with O”Connell) for the repeal of the Penal Laws.

In 1832 he appears in the press again – this time as a witness at the libel trial between Henry “Orator” Hunt and The Times newspaper at the Court of Exchequer in London. He is arrested at the trial and accused of sedition and riotous assembly (at a meeting in Manchester earlier in 1832). He is tried at Lancaster Assizes and sentenced to 12 months in prison. 

By this time he is a member of the Manchester Political Union – the forerunner of the Manchester Trades Council I think – representing the 6-7,000 silk weavers in the town.  The press report the efforts of Political Unions up and down the country to support Edward’s family (wife + 3 children) while he is imprisoned in Lancaster Castle.

The press report several meetings which Edward Curran is involved in concerning the campaign for universal suffrage and it is clear, by the late 1830’s, that he is heavily involved in the Chartist Movement.

One particular meeting is of note. On 16 April 1838 he led a protest meeting and Peterloo commemoration, again at St Peter’s Field, and was the first to speak to a crowd of some 20,000. He finished by reading out the names of the dead at Peterloo and also the names of the magistrates who were implicated in the dreadful decisions of the day. A letter was also read out from Henry Hunt himself.

There is a lot of other stuff in the BNArchive concerning Edward Curran – not least a lecture on “Capital & Labour” which he gave to the citizens of Chorlton in 1841 – and his campaigns for the repeal of the Penal Laws and Chartism amongst many others.