August 19, 2025 • 29 mins
Dive into the tumultuous events of August 16, 1819, with Three Accounts of Peterloo, a compelling companion to F.A. Brutons The Story of Peterloo. This short collection features firsthand accounts from Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, and John Benjamin Smith, each accompanied by insightful introductions from the editor. These contemporary narratives offer diverse perspectives on the tragic day when a peaceful reform rally at St. Peters Fields, Manchester, was violently disrupted by a troop of Hussars and local Yeomanry, resulting in 18 deaths and over 700 injuries. (Summary by Phil Benson)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section five of three Accounts of Peterloo by F. A. Bruton.
This Libery vox recording is in the public domain. Appendices
Appendix A. Some relics of Peterloo. One a banner carried
at Peterloo. At the entrance to the reading room of
(00:23):
the Reform Club at Middleton. On the left as you
reach the door may be seen one of the banners
carried at Peterloo by the Middleton contingent, which was led
by Samuel Bamford. It is of green material, or so
it seemed to me, and the letters are stamped on
it in gold capitals. The motto facing the entrances Liberty
(00:45):
and Fraternity. On the other side of the banner, seen
from within the room, are the words unity and strength.
The explanatory inscription reads This banner was carried by the
Middleton Reformers, with Samuel Bamford at their head, to Peterloo,
and is frequently mentioned in the historical records of that movement.
(01:06):
See illustration opposite. In chapter thirty three of Passages in
the Life of a Radical, Bamford speaks of quote. The
colors a blue one of silk with inscriptions in golden
letters unity and Strength, liberty and fraternity, a green one
of silk with golden letters Parliament's annual Suffrage universal end quote.
(01:31):
Apparently the banner here figured is the one of which
he writes later in chapter thirty six quote. I rejoined
my companions i e. After Peterloo, and forming about a
thousand of them into file, we set off to the
sound of fife and drum, with our only banner waving,
and in that form we re entered the town of Middleton.
(01:52):
The banner was exhibited from a window of the Suffield's
Arms public house end quote. The banner there is now
carefully preserved between sheets of glass. The photograph was taken
under considerable difficulties as regards light by mister R. H.
Fletcher of Eccles. The Chadderton banner, though much dilapidated, is
(02:15):
also still in existence. But I could not obtain the
address of the person in whose keeping it is. She
had left Chadderton and was living at Blackpool two. Bamford's cottage,
some distance higher up the town, may be seen the
house where Bamford lived at the date of Peterloo. Over
(02:36):
the door as a stone inscribed Samuel Bamford resided and
was arrested in this house August twenty six, eighteen nineteen.
Bamford describes the event in detail in chapter forty of
the work named above, beginning, quote, about two o'clock on
the morning of Thursday, the twenty sixth of August, that is,
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on the tenth morning after the fatal meeting, I was
awoke by footsteps in the street opposite my residence. Presently
they increased in number, et cetera end quote. The photograph
is again by mister R. H. Fletcher Sea illustration in
the churchyard above may be seen Bamford's tomb and also
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the monument raised to his memory three Constable staves Hey.
In the catalog of the Old Manchester and Salford Exhibition
held at the Art Gallery in nineteen o four, on
page twenty seven, Exhibit one hundred and fifty seven appears
as quote handcuffs belonging to Joe Nadine, Deputy Constable of
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Manchester at the time of Peterloo end quote lent by G. C.
Yates Esquire. On the same page, Exhibit one hundred and
sixty seven is a quote special Constable staff used at
the time of Peterloo in Manchester and then the property
of mister beaver End lent by C. Sheel Esquire. This
(04:06):
collection is now for the most part dispersed. B Mister T.
Swindles of Monton Green, in the third volume of his
Manchester Streets and Manchester Men, mentions a special constable's staff
given to him by a descendant of James Filds. It
is inscribed a relic of Peterloo special Constable staff which
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belonged to the late James and Thomas Filds Grocer's Shude Hill,
Manchester c. In November nineteen nineteen, on the afternoon of
the day on which I was to lecture on the
story of Peterloo at the Rylands Library, mister W. W.
Manfield of Charlton, com Hardy brought me three interesting relics
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of Peterloo, which have been in the possession of his
family since eighteen nineteen. On the occasion of Peterloo, his
father and grandfather saw the crowd streaming through Salford after
the catastrophe, and their curiosity led them to walk out
to Saint Peter's Fields. There they picked up the three relics,
which have been carefully preserved ever since. One of them
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is a long, heavy Constable's battern, apparently of rosewood, with
the royal arms painted at the thicker end. Sea illustration opposite.
Four Head of flagstaff. The second of mister Manfield's relics
is the head of one of the banner poles carried
at Peterloo. It is shaped like the traditional cap of
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Liberty and inscribed in neat gilt capitals Hunt and Liberty
Sea illustration. Five. Hussars plume. The third of mister Manfield's
relics is a plume of horsehair, apparently originally dyed red,
though if so much of the dye has faded, this
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it may be presumed, was the plume from the helmet
of one of the Hussars. It has been mentioned that
the fifteenth Csars where a scarlet plume. These three relics
have been photographed on one plate by mister Fletcher see
illustration opposite to page seventy seven six A count book
of the relief Committee. In the year of the centenary,
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mister Guppy was fortunate enough to secure for the Rylands
Library the actual account book used by one of the
committees formed for the relief of those injured in the fray.
A single page of this book has been photographed by
mister R. H. Fletcher for the present volume Sea Illustration.
Mister Guppy's account of the volume Bulleton of Ryland's Library, Aprilton,
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November nineteen nineteen, page one hundred and ninety one, is
as follows. The library has been fortunate in being able
to acquire a small octavo account book, leather bound, which
seems to have been an official record of the casualties
at Peterloo which were dealt with by one of the
relief committees. It contains details of the name's, addresses and
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injuries of three hundred forty seven individuals, particulars of the
successive grants made to them by one committee, and references
to the grants made by another committee, possibly two others.
The details given are corroborative of many of the statements
in mister Bruton's Story of Peterloo. Thus, the cases include
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those of Elizabeth Gaunt mentioned on pages two hundred seventy
four and two hundred seventy five of Missus Files on
page two hundred seventy four, of Thomas Redford on pages
two hundred eighty five, two hundred ninety one and two
hundred ninety four. There are references to the loose timber
see pages two hundred sixty nine, two hundred eighty four,
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and two hundred ninety four. The injuries to special constables Sea,
page two hundred eighty The fight near the Friends Meeting
House see pages two hundred eighty four and two hundred
eighty nine. The oak trees growing near that building see
pages two hundred and sixty nine two hundred ninety four.
The white hat as a symbol of radicalism Sea, page
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two hundred seventy three. The fear of losing employment evinced
by the wounded Sea, page two hundred ninety one. The
infantry intercepting fugitives see page two hundred and ninety The
child killed by a trooper in Cooper Street, Sea, page
two hundred and seventy seven, and so on. The sum
total voted by this committee appears to have been six
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hundred eighty seven pound. It must be remembered, however, that
the sum of three thousand pound mentioned on page two
hundred ninety one as having been subscribed may have been
used partly for legal expenses. Since this manuscript account book
came to light, mister Bruton has discovered a printed report
of the relief committee, in which five hundred and sixty
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cases are described, and the amount raised to date is
given as three one thousand, four hundred and eight pound,
one shilling and eightpence and pronounced to be inadequate for
six hundred people. It also gives the amount spent on
legal expenses as one thousand and seventy seven pound. Seven
account book recording amounts raised for the relief of Special
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Constables and their families. I have to thank Doctor A. A.
Munford for calling my attention to another account book connected
with Peterlo, which I believe he met with while going
over the Crossly papers at the Chetham Library. Its number
in the library catalog is MSB three seventy. It is
a small notebook ruled for cash and entitled Subscriptions for
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Special Constables numbers ten and eleven. There is a note
of a resolution carried on August twenty seventh, eighteen nineteen,
to the effect that a relief fund should be raised
on behalf of special Constables injured at Peterloo and their families.
Scriptions recorded in this book range from one pound to
ten pound ten shillings, and amount in all to about
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four hundred pound. Appendix B one note on the casualties
at peter Loo. On few points to the accounts of
Peterloo vary more than on the question of the casualties.
There is sufficient historical material available to enable us to
investigate this matter in detail, but the task would be
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a gruesome one, and no useful object would be attained
if it were accomplished. On the other hand, a few
words may serve to show whereabouts the truth lies. In
the Cambridge Modern History, Volume ten, pages five hundred eighty,
five hundred eighty one, it is stated that a man
was killed and forty were injured. In the Political History
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of England nineteen o six, volume eleven, pages one seven eight,
one seventy nine, we read that happen the actual loss
of life did not exceed five or six, but a
much larger number were more or less wounded. A number
of the most important school histories in use at the
present time reproduce one or the other of these statements verbatim.
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If we turn to the contemporary records, they are somewhat conflicting.
The hurried estimates given by the local papers immediately after
the catastrophe e g. One newspaper reported twelve killed had
to be corrected later. The most general estimates seems to
be eleven killed and between five hundred and six hundred wounded.
(11:38):
When we come to examine these figures in detail, however,
these points emerge. One killed is evidently taken to include
the cases of those who died after lingering, possibly for
some weeks. Two The summary includes the casualties due to
the firing of the infantry in the neighborhood of New
Cross some hours after the great event. Included in the
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list also will be the child files not from its
mother's arms by one of the Yeomanry as they were
riding to the meeting. Archibald Prentice, in his Historical Sketches
and Personal Recollections of Manchester, page one sixty seven, states
that eleven were killed, that four hundred and twenty were wounded,
and that there still remained according to the Relief Committee's reports,
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one hundred and forty cases to be investigated, making a
total of five hundred and sixty. Mister John Benjamin Smith,
who very likely refreshed his memory by looking up records
when writing his reminiscences, gives the same result. Mister J. C. Hobhouse,
speaking in the House of Commons, on May nineteenth, eighteen
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twenty one, said that quote he held in his hand
a list of killed and wounded running to twenty five
to thirty sheets, and defied them to disprove it end quote.
It is then that these estimates are quoted from the
Committee's report, and to this it will be well now
to turn. With the kind assistance of mister Swan of
(13:08):
the Reference Library, I've been able to find one, and
only one copy of this report. It is bound up
with a series of papers cataloged as Lancashire and Yorkshire
Tracts at the Manchester Reference Library. The reference number is
Lancashire and Yorkshire Tracts, Barlow's Historical Collector eight sixty three
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three number four brackets one five one zero four. It
is entitled Report of the Metropolitan and Central Committee Appointed
for the Relief of the Manchester Sufferers, with an appendix
containing the names of the sufferers and the nature and
extent of their injuries. Also an account of the distribution
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of funds and other documents, published by order of the Committee, London,
eighteen twenty. This committee seems to have been formed by
amalgamating several organizations in the Metropolis which sprang into being
as a result of public sympathy with the sufferers, and
it worked in conjunction with the Manchester and other Lancashire committees.
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The subscriptions recorded to date amount to three thousand, four
hundred and eight pounds, one shilling and eightpence, of which
one thousand, two hundred and six pounds, thirteen shillings and
eightpence had been distributed, two hundred and fifty pound having
been received from the local Manchester committees. The amount expended
on law charges and expenses of witnesses is given as
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one thousand, seventy seven pounds, six shillings and ninepence. Advertisements
and sundrys cost three hundred and fifty five pounds, thirteen
shillings and sixpence, and this leaves a balance of over
seven hundred and sixty eight pound, which is pronounced inadequate
to deal with the cases that remain. A fresh appeal
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is therefore made to the British Public deputation was sent
from London to investigate cases, and this deputation reports in
January eighteen twenty that, out of four hundred and twenty
sufferers visited and relieved, one hundred and thirteen are females,
though one hundred and thirty received severe saber cuts, fourteen
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of these being females. To be quite safe, we must
admit the possibility that the term sufferers may sometimes include
members of the families of those killed or injured. There
follow thirty eight pages filled with the names of those
killed and wounded at Peterloo, some four hundred and thirty
in all, with full details of their injuries, and in
(15:40):
the case of the former the description is quote killed
or who have subsequently died in consequence of injuries there
received end quote, the number of these being given as eleven.
Of these eleven, two were sabered, one was sabered and
trampled upon, one was sabreed and staffed, one was sabreed
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and crushed two, one of them a woman rode over
by the cavalry, one trampled by the cavalry, one inwardly crushed,
and one a woman thrown into a cellar. In the
case of two of these, the words are added killed
on the spot. The child killed in Cooper Street completes
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the total. One of the relief committees met at mister
Prentiss's warehouse, and the care with which the various cases
were investigated and successive grants made from the funds of
the different committees, is clearly shown by the details given
in the account book secured by mister Guppy in nineteen
nineteen for the Islands Library, which is mentioned above. Perhaps
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it will never be possible to say exactly how many
were left dead on the field. One at any rate,
who died at once or very shortly afterwards, was by
a strange irony a special constable, and this is probably
the quote one man killed. Of some of the accounts,
it will be remembered that Lieutenant Joliffe reported quote two
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women not likely to recover, one man in a dying state,
and two or three reputed dead in the letter quoted
above describing his visit to the infirmary on the Sunday
following the event. Most of the cases investigated by the
committees belonged to the side of the reformers, but it
must not be forgotten that the other side claimed to
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have serious casualties. Mister Francis Phillips, for example, enumerates the
casualties to the troops, and an estimate of these is
given also in the centenary volume of the Cheshire Yeomanry.
We have already seen above. Moreover, that a subscription list
was opened for the families of the Special Constables, and
that the appeal met with a generous response. It is
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a curious feature of the case that each side seems
to be anxious to make its casualty list as imposing
as possible. A distinct summary of the various estimates is
given by MacDonnell in his State Trials. This summary includes
the official report from the infirmary and the list of
casualties to the troops. Without pursuing the matter further, we
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may say that a careful examination of the somewhat confusing
evidence would seem to show that the estimate quote eleven
killed and between five hundred and six hundred wounded end
quote will not prove to be far wrong, provided that
one we understand killed to include those who died as
the result of injuries received on the field, and two
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we include in the general total the casualties incurred during
the disturbances some hours later in the neighborhood of New Cross.
At least one list published subsequently brings the total of
killed up to fourteen. Two points not directly concerned with
this discussion are dealt with by the Relief Committee, and
are sufficiently interesting to be recorded. One the Committee paid
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out seven hundred and ten pound quote on account of
the trial at York, the Manchester Committee voting one hundred
pounds for the same object end quote. Two. The deputation
sent from London to investigate the cases mentioned in their
reports and striking details of the conditions of life among
the operatives, to quote only two sentences. In no one
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instance among the weavers did your deputation see a morsel
of animal food? And they ascertained that in most families
where they were children, the taste of meat was unknown.
From one year to another. Six shillings a week was
the average wage of an able bodied and industrious weaver.
Many could not get this. Two. Presence of women and
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children at Peterloo. It has often been asserted that the
peaceful intentions of the crowd at Peterloo are attested by
the presence among them of women and young children. Every
detail of evidences of value. I give here a sentence
from a letter which I received from Principal Reynolds. My
father was there in his mother's arms, though only one
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year old. So my grandmother told me three some gleanings
from the scrap books. It was the custom in the
early decades of the nineteenth century when newspapers were deer
and newspaper files were not available, as there were no
free libraries to collect newspaper cuttings and illustrations, with tracks
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and broadsides, election squibs and so forth in large scrap books. Thus,
at the Peel Park Library is preserved the scrap book
of Joseph Brotherton, for many years Member for Salford, running
to over forty volumes. The Grieves scrap Book at the
Reference Library contains a valuable collection of this kind. The
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Owing collection at the same library fills over eighty volumes.
At the Chetham Library may be seen Lord Ellesmere's scrap
Book and a number of others. From many references to Peterlo.
In these books, we may select the three items which follow.
The Greaves collection contains a rare print of Peterloo, somewhat
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luried in its detail. Mister Albert Nicholson has in his
possession a highly colored copy of this which he has
shown me. No other copies seem to be known. I
have to thank mister J. J. Phelps for calling my
attention to two papers in a scrap book at the
Chetham Library, which he conjectures to have been that of
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mister Francis Phillips, the protagonist on behalf of the magistrates,
and the author of an exposure of the calumnies, et cetera.
One of these is the actual subpoena which mister Phillips
received summoning him to give evidence in the trial at York.
Quote there to testify the truth on our behalf against
Henry Hunt and others for sirin and misdemeanors, whereof they
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are indicted, end quote ms B nine forty one, one
hundred and ten, page forty three. The other paper is
of some importance as it fixes the date of the
embodiment of the Manchester Yeomanry in the Story of Peterloo
page thirteen. Some details are given in support of a
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conjecture that the Core was formed later than March in
eighteen seventeen. The scrap book just quoted confirms this conjecture,
for there appears a printed copy of a letter addressed
to the borough Reeves and Constables of Manchester and Salford
and bearing over one hundred signatures, that of mister Phillips
coming second, asking that a meeting may be convened with
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the object of forming such a core. In response to
this appeal, the borough Reeves and Constables summoned a meeting
for the purpose in a letter dated Manchester, June the sixteenth,
eighteen seventeen, ms. B. Nine forty one, s. One one
hundred and ten, page twenty two. With this dat as
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a guide, it was easy to find in the advertisement
columns of Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle for Saturday, June the twenty first,
eighteen seventeen, a copy of both letters, a list of
the signatures, and the announcement that the proposed meeting was
actually held on Dune the nineteenth, eighteen seventeen, when it
was resolved quote that under the present circumstances, it is
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expedient to form a body of Yeoman re cavalry in
the towns and neighbourhood of Manchester and Salford. Details follow
as to government allowances for uniform et cetera, and as
to the possibility of amalgamating with similar cores in the
surrounding towns should such be formed. Each man was to
provide his own horse. This information has an important bearing
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on the tragedy of Peterloo and taken in conjunction with
the resolution of the magistrates mentioned in the Story of
Peterloo payd Te t. Thirteen leaves no doubt as to
what was the nature of the present circumstances that called
the core into being. Four Explanation of the contemporary plan
and picture of Peterloo A. The contemporary plan of Saint
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Peter's Field, which appears on the following page was published
in Farkerson's debating Report of the trial in eighteen twenty two.
As the lettering is small, some explanation is necessary. The
shaded area in the center represents the open space on
which the tragedy was enacted. To the south of it
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is clearly seen the raised ground mentioned by Stanley, and
shown also in his plan. The windmill, which stood near
and gave its name to Windmill Street, had disappeared some
years before. The site of it is now occupied by
the central station approach. On the shaded space are marked
Husting's carriage i e. Mister Hunt's carry marked also on
(25:01):
Stanley's plan, The double line of constables and the Manchester
Yeomanry drawn up in front of the row of houses
in Mount Street labeled Magistrates assembled here. The Friends Meeting
House is marked Quakers Meeting House, and the enclosing wall
is stated to measure in height three foot seven inches
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on the inside and ten foot three inches on the outside.
These measurements would be inserted, probably in connection with the
statement that one of the cavalry jumped his horse over
the wall. Apparently a gate and posts cross Mount Street
in front of the meeting house and lead into Saint
Peter's Field, across which two dotted lines indicate the projected
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line of Peter Street. The position of the troops and
the line of their approach to the field are shown
as follows. The thirty first infantry are drawn up in
Brazennose Street, the upper end of which is also blocked
with a gate and post. The eighty eighth infantry are
lined up in Dickinson Street. In Portland Street are the
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Manchester Yeomanry, and their courses shown by a dotted line
up Portland Street, along Nicholas Street, down Cooper Street, and
then round the corner of Cooper's Garden Wall now the
site of the northwestern corner of the Midland Hotel, into
Mount Street. The plans stating that the Manchester Yeomanry came
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this way to the ground. Another troop of the Manchester
Yeomanry is drawn up in front of Saint John's Church
in Byron Street. Facing them in the same street are
shown the fifteenth Hussars in two sections, presumably representing the
two squadrons mentioned by Lieutenant Joliffe in his letter. Lastly,
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the Cheshire Yeomanry are drawn up in Saint John Street
off Deansgate, and the line of approach of all these
mounted troops is shown by a dotted line passing along
Byron Street, Saint John Street southward down Deansgate, then along
Fleet Street, up Lower Moseley Street and along the raised
ground already mentioned to Saint Peter's Field. The inscription on
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the plan reading the fifteenth Hussars one troop of the
Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry came this way to the ground.
The artillery are not shown. The scale of yards given
on the plan shows that Stanley's estimate of one hundred
yards as the distance from mister Buxton's house to the
Hustings was exactly correct. B rose contemporary picture of Peterloo,
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which is shown on the following page, is perhaps the
best of a number of sketches extant the details are
fairly accurate. In the background on the extreme left is
seen to quote Bamford, the corner of a garden wall,
round which the Manchester Yeomanry in blue and white uniform
came trotting sword in hand, to the front of a
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row of new houses. The corner is on the site
of the northwestern corner of the Midland Hotel, the new
houses or on the site of the present Midland Buffet.
Mister Hewitt's factory in the distance was just off Lower
Moseley Street. The row of houses to the right of
this in the background was on the upper side of
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Windmill Street. The hustings are on the site of the
southeastern corner of the Free Trade Hall. Standing on them
we may distinguish mister Hunt and the leader of the
Manchester Female Reformers. Around them are the banners of the
various contingents. We may even make out the legend no
corn laws on the one in front the banner. Polls
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are shape to resemble caps of liberty, as shown in
another of our illustrations. The crowder occupying the site of
the Free Trade Hall, The Theatre Royal, the y MCA,
the Gaiety, and a number of adjoining buildings. The moment
seized by the artist for his picture is that in
which the Manchester Yeomanry, many of whom are scattered and
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entangled among the crowd, have reached the hustings, while in
the distance the Hussars can just be seen lining up
in Mount Street and charging to their relief. The crowd,
consisting of men, women and children, are seen dispersing in
all directions. The view might be imagined to have been
taken from the roof of a building which then occupied
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the site of the present Albert Hall in Peters Street.
Other contemporary prints include Saint Peter's Church and the Friends
Meeting House in the picture end of three Accounts of
Peterloo by F. FE Bruton
Section five of three Accounts of Peterloo by F. A. Bruton.
This Libery vox recording is in the public domain. Appendices
Appendix A. Some relics of Peterloo. One a banner carried
at Peterloo. At the entrance to the reading room of
(00:23):
the Reform Club at Middleton. On the left as you
reach the door may be seen one of the banners
carried at Peterloo by the Middleton contingent, which was led
by Samuel Bamford. It is of green material, or so
it seemed to me, and the letters are stamped on
it in gold capitals. The motto facing the entrances Liberty
(00:45):
and Fraternity. On the other side of the banner, seen
from within the room, are the words unity and strength.
The explanatory inscription reads This banner was carried by the
Middleton Reformers, with Samuel Bamford at their head, to Peterloo,
and is frequently mentioned in the historical records of that movement.
(01:06):
See illustration opposite. In chapter thirty three of Passages in
the Life of a Radical, Bamford speaks of quote. The
colors a blue one of silk with inscriptions in golden
letters unity and Strength, liberty and fraternity, a green one
of silk with golden letters Parliament's annual Suffrage universal end quote.
(01:31):
Apparently the banner here figured is the one of which
he writes later in chapter thirty six quote. I rejoined
my companions i e. After Peterloo, and forming about a
thousand of them into file, we set off to the
sound of fife and drum, with our only banner waving,
and in that form we re entered the town of Middleton.
(01:52):
The banner was exhibited from a window of the Suffield's
Arms public house end quote. The banner there is now
carefully preserved between sheets of glass. The photograph was taken
under considerable difficulties as regards light by mister R. H.
Fletcher of Eccles. The Chadderton banner, though much dilapidated, is
(02:15):
also still in existence. But I could not obtain the
address of the person in whose keeping it is. She
had left Chadderton and was living at Blackpool two. Bamford's cottage,
some distance higher up the town, may be seen the
house where Bamford lived at the date of Peterloo. Over
(02:36):
the door as a stone inscribed Samuel Bamford resided and
was arrested in this house August twenty six, eighteen nineteen.
Bamford describes the event in detail in chapter forty of
the work named above, beginning, quote, about two o'clock on
the morning of Thursday, the twenty sixth of August, that is,
(02:59):
on the tenth morning after the fatal meeting, I was
awoke by footsteps in the street opposite my residence. Presently
they increased in number, et cetera end quote. The photograph
is again by mister R. H. Fletcher Sea illustration in
the churchyard above may be seen Bamford's tomb and also
(03:20):
the monument raised to his memory three Constable staves Hey.
In the catalog of the Old Manchester and Salford Exhibition
held at the Art Gallery in nineteen o four, on
page twenty seven, Exhibit one hundred and fifty seven appears
as quote handcuffs belonging to Joe Nadine, Deputy Constable of
(03:43):
Manchester at the time of Peterloo end quote lent by G. C.
Yates Esquire. On the same page, Exhibit one hundred and
sixty seven is a quote special Constable staff used at
the time of Peterloo in Manchester and then the property
of mister beaver End lent by C. Sheel Esquire. This
(04:06):
collection is now for the most part dispersed. B Mister T.
Swindles of Monton Green, in the third volume of his
Manchester Streets and Manchester Men, mentions a special constable's staff
given to him by a descendant of James Filds. It
is inscribed a relic of Peterloo special Constable staff which
(04:29):
belonged to the late James and Thomas Filds Grocer's Shude Hill,
Manchester c. In November nineteen nineteen, on the afternoon of
the day on which I was to lecture on the
story of Peterloo at the Rylands Library, mister W. W.
Manfield of Charlton, com Hardy brought me three interesting relics
(04:49):
of Peterloo, which have been in the possession of his
family since eighteen nineteen. On the occasion of Peterloo, his
father and grandfather saw the crowd streaming through Salford after
the catastrophe, and their curiosity led them to walk out
to Saint Peter's Fields. There they picked up the three relics,
which have been carefully preserved ever since. One of them
(05:13):
is a long, heavy Constable's battern, apparently of rosewood, with
the royal arms painted at the thicker end. Sea illustration opposite.
Four Head of flagstaff. The second of mister Manfield's relics
is the head of one of the banner poles carried
at Peterloo. It is shaped like the traditional cap of
(05:33):
Liberty and inscribed in neat gilt capitals Hunt and Liberty
Sea illustration. Five. Hussars plume. The third of mister Manfield's
relics is a plume of horsehair, apparently originally dyed red,
though if so much of the dye has faded, this
(05:53):
it may be presumed, was the plume from the helmet
of one of the Hussars. It has been mentioned that
the fifteenth Csars where a scarlet plume. These three relics
have been photographed on one plate by mister Fletcher see
illustration opposite to page seventy seven six A count book
of the relief Committee. In the year of the centenary,
(06:16):
mister Guppy was fortunate enough to secure for the Rylands
Library the actual account book used by one of the
committees formed for the relief of those injured in the fray.
A single page of this book has been photographed by
mister R. H. Fletcher for the present volume Sea Illustration.
Mister Guppy's account of the volume Bulleton of Ryland's Library, Aprilton,
(06:39):
November nineteen nineteen, page one hundred and ninety one, is
as follows. The library has been fortunate in being able
to acquire a small octavo account book, leather bound, which
seems to have been an official record of the casualties
at Peterloo which were dealt with by one of the
relief committees. It contains details of the name's, addresses and
(07:02):
injuries of three hundred forty seven individuals, particulars of the
successive grants made to them by one committee, and references
to the grants made by another committee, possibly two others.
The details given are corroborative of many of the statements
in mister Bruton's Story of Peterloo. Thus, the cases include
(07:25):
those of Elizabeth Gaunt mentioned on pages two hundred seventy
four and two hundred seventy five of Missus Files on
page two hundred seventy four, of Thomas Redford on pages
two hundred eighty five, two hundred ninety one and two
hundred ninety four. There are references to the loose timber
see pages two hundred sixty nine, two hundred eighty four,
(07:48):
and two hundred ninety four. The injuries to special constables Sea,
page two hundred eighty The fight near the Friends Meeting
House see pages two hundred eighty four and two hundred
eighty nine. The oak trees growing near that building see
pages two hundred and sixty nine two hundred ninety four.
The white hat as a symbol of radicalism Sea, page
(08:09):
two hundred seventy three. The fear of losing employment evinced
by the wounded Sea, page two hundred ninety one. The
infantry intercepting fugitives see page two hundred and ninety The
child killed by a trooper in Cooper Street, Sea, page
two hundred and seventy seven, and so on. The sum
total voted by this committee appears to have been six
(08:33):
hundred eighty seven pound. It must be remembered, however, that
the sum of three thousand pound mentioned on page two
hundred ninety one as having been subscribed may have been
used partly for legal expenses. Since this manuscript account book
came to light, mister Bruton has discovered a printed report
of the relief committee, in which five hundred and sixty
(08:55):
cases are described, and the amount raised to date is
given as three one thousand, four hundred and eight pound,
one shilling and eightpence and pronounced to be inadequate for
six hundred people. It also gives the amount spent on
legal expenses as one thousand and seventy seven pound. Seven
account book recording amounts raised for the relief of Special
(09:18):
Constables and their families. I have to thank Doctor A. A.
Munford for calling my attention to another account book connected
with Peterlo, which I believe he met with while going
over the Crossly papers at the Chetham Library. Its number
in the library catalog is MSB three seventy. It is
a small notebook ruled for cash and entitled Subscriptions for
(09:43):
Special Constables numbers ten and eleven. There is a note
of a resolution carried on August twenty seventh, eighteen nineteen,
to the effect that a relief fund should be raised
on behalf of special Constables injured at Peterloo and their families.
Scriptions recorded in this book range from one pound to
ten pound ten shillings, and amount in all to about
(10:06):
four hundred pound. Appendix B one note on the casualties
at peter Loo. On few points to the accounts of
Peterloo vary more than on the question of the casualties.
There is sufficient historical material available to enable us to
investigate this matter in detail, but the task would be
(10:29):
a gruesome one, and no useful object would be attained
if it were accomplished. On the other hand, a few
words may serve to show whereabouts the truth lies. In
the Cambridge Modern History, Volume ten, pages five hundred eighty,
five hundred eighty one, it is stated that a man
was killed and forty were injured. In the Political History
(10:52):
of England nineteen o six, volume eleven, pages one seven eight,
one seventy nine, we read that happen the actual loss
of life did not exceed five or six, but a
much larger number were more or less wounded. A number
of the most important school histories in use at the
present time reproduce one or the other of these statements verbatim.
(11:16):
If we turn to the contemporary records, they are somewhat conflicting.
The hurried estimates given by the local papers immediately after
the catastrophe e g. One newspaper reported twelve killed had
to be corrected later. The most general estimates seems to
be eleven killed and between five hundred and six hundred wounded.
(11:38):
When we come to examine these figures in detail, however,
these points emerge. One killed is evidently taken to include
the cases of those who died after lingering, possibly for
some weeks. Two The summary includes the casualties due to
the firing of the infantry in the neighborhood of New
Cross some hours after the great event. Included in the
(12:02):
list also will be the child files not from its
mother's arms by one of the Yeomanry as they were
riding to the meeting. Archibald Prentice, in his Historical Sketches
and Personal Recollections of Manchester, page one sixty seven, states
that eleven were killed, that four hundred and twenty were wounded,
and that there still remained according to the Relief Committee's reports,
(12:26):
one hundred and forty cases to be investigated, making a
total of five hundred and sixty. Mister John Benjamin Smith,
who very likely refreshed his memory by looking up records
when writing his reminiscences, gives the same result. Mister J. C. Hobhouse,
speaking in the House of Commons, on May nineteenth, eighteen
(12:47):
twenty one, said that quote he held in his hand
a list of killed and wounded running to twenty five
to thirty sheets, and defied them to disprove it end quote.
It is then that these estimates are quoted from the
Committee's report, and to this it will be well now
to turn. With the kind assistance of mister Swan of
(13:08):
the Reference Library, I've been able to find one, and
only one copy of this report. It is bound up
with a series of papers cataloged as Lancashire and Yorkshire
Tracts at the Manchester Reference Library. The reference number is
Lancashire and Yorkshire Tracts, Barlow's Historical Collector eight sixty three
(13:30):
three number four brackets one five one zero four. It
is entitled Report of the Metropolitan and Central Committee Appointed
for the Relief of the Manchester Sufferers, with an appendix
containing the names of the sufferers and the nature and
extent of their injuries. Also an account of the distribution
(13:50):
of funds and other documents, published by order of the Committee, London,
eighteen twenty. This committee seems to have been formed by
amalgamating several organizations in the Metropolis which sprang into being
as a result of public sympathy with the sufferers, and
it worked in conjunction with the Manchester and other Lancashire committees.
(14:12):
The subscriptions recorded to date amount to three thousand, four
hundred and eight pounds, one shilling and eightpence, of which
one thousand, two hundred and six pounds, thirteen shillings and
eightpence had been distributed, two hundred and fifty pound having
been received from the local Manchester committees. The amount expended
on law charges and expenses of witnesses is given as
(14:35):
one thousand, seventy seven pounds, six shillings and ninepence. Advertisements
and sundrys cost three hundred and fifty five pounds, thirteen
shillings and sixpence, and this leaves a balance of over
seven hundred and sixty eight pound, which is pronounced inadequate
to deal with the cases that remain. A fresh appeal
(14:56):
is therefore made to the British Public deputation was sent
from London to investigate cases, and this deputation reports in
January eighteen twenty that, out of four hundred and twenty
sufferers visited and relieved, one hundred and thirteen are females,
though one hundred and thirty received severe saber cuts, fourteen
(15:18):
of these being females. To be quite safe, we must
admit the possibility that the term sufferers may sometimes include
members of the families of those killed or injured. There
follow thirty eight pages filled with the names of those
killed and wounded at Peterloo, some four hundred and thirty
in all, with full details of their injuries, and in
(15:40):
the case of the former the description is quote killed
or who have subsequently died in consequence of injuries there
received end quote, the number of these being given as eleven.
Of these eleven, two were sabered, one was sabered and
trampled upon, one was sabreed and staffed, one was sabreed
(16:01):
and crushed two, one of them a woman rode over
by the cavalry, one trampled by the cavalry, one inwardly crushed,
and one a woman thrown into a cellar. In the
case of two of these, the words are added killed
on the spot. The child killed in Cooper Street completes
(16:21):
the total. One of the relief committees met at mister
Prentiss's warehouse, and the care with which the various cases
were investigated and successive grants made from the funds of
the different committees, is clearly shown by the details given
in the account book secured by mister Guppy in nineteen
nineteen for the Islands Library, which is mentioned above. Perhaps
(16:44):
it will never be possible to say exactly how many
were left dead on the field. One at any rate,
who died at once or very shortly afterwards, was by
a strange irony a special constable, and this is probably
the quote one man killed. Of some of the accounts,
it will be remembered that Lieutenant Joliffe reported quote two
(17:07):
women not likely to recover, one man in a dying state,
and two or three reputed dead in the letter quoted
above describing his visit to the infirmary on the Sunday
following the event. Most of the cases investigated by the
committees belonged to the side of the reformers, but it
must not be forgotten that the other side claimed to
(17:28):
have serious casualties. Mister Francis Phillips, for example, enumerates the
casualties to the troops, and an estimate of these is
given also in the centenary volume of the Cheshire Yeomanry.
We have already seen above. Moreover, that a subscription list
was opened for the families of the Special Constables, and
that the appeal met with a generous response. It is
(17:52):
a curious feature of the case that each side seems
to be anxious to make its casualty list as imposing
as possible. A distinct summary of the various estimates is
given by MacDonnell in his State Trials. This summary includes
the official report from the infirmary and the list of
casualties to the troops. Without pursuing the matter further, we
(18:14):
may say that a careful examination of the somewhat confusing
evidence would seem to show that the estimate quote eleven
killed and between five hundred and six hundred wounded end
quote will not prove to be far wrong, provided that
one we understand killed to include those who died as
the result of injuries received on the field, and two
(18:36):
we include in the general total the casualties incurred during
the disturbances some hours later in the neighborhood of New Cross.
At least one list published subsequently brings the total of
killed up to fourteen. Two points not directly concerned with
this discussion are dealt with by the Relief Committee, and
are sufficiently interesting to be recorded. One the Committee paid
(19:01):
out seven hundred and ten pound quote on account of
the trial at York, the Manchester Committee voting one hundred
pounds for the same object end quote. Two. The deputation
sent from London to investigate the cases mentioned in their
reports and striking details of the conditions of life among
the operatives, to quote only two sentences. In no one
(19:25):
instance among the weavers did your deputation see a morsel
of animal food? And they ascertained that in most families
where they were children, the taste of meat was unknown.
From one year to another. Six shillings a week was
the average wage of an able bodied and industrious weaver.
Many could not get this. Two. Presence of women and
(19:48):
children at Peterloo. It has often been asserted that the
peaceful intentions of the crowd at Peterloo are attested by
the presence among them of women and young children. Every
detail of evidences of value. I give here a sentence
from a letter which I received from Principal Reynolds. My
father was there in his mother's arms, though only one
(20:11):
year old. So my grandmother told me three some gleanings
from the scrap books. It was the custom in the
early decades of the nineteenth century when newspapers were deer
and newspaper files were not available, as there were no
free libraries to collect newspaper cuttings and illustrations, with tracks
(20:32):
and broadsides, election squibs and so forth in large scrap books. Thus,
at the Peel Park Library is preserved the scrap book
of Joseph Brotherton, for many years Member for Salford, running
to over forty volumes. The Grieves scrap Book at the
Reference Library contains a valuable collection of this kind. The
(20:56):
Owing collection at the same library fills over eighty volumes.
At the Chetham Library may be seen Lord Ellesmere's scrap
Book and a number of others. From many references to Peterlo.
In these books, we may select the three items which follow.
The Greaves collection contains a rare print of Peterloo, somewhat
(21:17):
luried in its detail. Mister Albert Nicholson has in his
possession a highly colored copy of this which he has
shown me. No other copies seem to be known. I
have to thank mister J. J. Phelps for calling my
attention to two papers in a scrap book at the
Chetham Library, which he conjectures to have been that of
(21:38):
mister Francis Phillips, the protagonist on behalf of the magistrates,
and the author of an exposure of the calumnies, et cetera.
One of these is the actual subpoena which mister Phillips
received summoning him to give evidence in the trial at York.
Quote there to testify the truth on our behalf against
Henry Hunt and others for sirin and misdemeanors, whereof they
(22:01):
are indicted, end quote ms B nine forty one, one
hundred and ten, page forty three. The other paper is
of some importance as it fixes the date of the
embodiment of the Manchester Yeomanry in the Story of Peterloo
page thirteen. Some details are given in support of a
(22:22):
conjecture that the Core was formed later than March in
eighteen seventeen. The scrap book just quoted confirms this conjecture,
for there appears a printed copy of a letter addressed
to the borough Reeves and Constables of Manchester and Salford
and bearing over one hundred signatures, that of mister Phillips
coming second, asking that a meeting may be convened with
(22:44):
the object of forming such a core. In response to
this appeal, the borough Reeves and Constables summoned a meeting
for the purpose in a letter dated Manchester, June the sixteenth,
eighteen seventeen, ms. B. Nine forty one, s. One one
hundred and ten, page twenty two. With this dat as
(23:04):
a guide, it was easy to find in the advertisement
columns of Wheeler's Manchester Chronicle for Saturday, June the twenty first,
eighteen seventeen, a copy of both letters, a list of
the signatures, and the announcement that the proposed meeting was
actually held on Dune the nineteenth, eighteen seventeen, when it
was resolved quote that under the present circumstances, it is
(23:27):
expedient to form a body of Yeoman re cavalry in
the towns and neighbourhood of Manchester and Salford. Details follow
as to government allowances for uniform et cetera, and as
to the possibility of amalgamating with similar cores in the
surrounding towns should such be formed. Each man was to
provide his own horse. This information has an important bearing
(23:52):
on the tragedy of Peterloo and taken in conjunction with
the resolution of the magistrates mentioned in the Story of
Peterloo payd Te t. Thirteen leaves no doubt as to
what was the nature of the present circumstances that called
the core into being. Four Explanation of the contemporary plan
and picture of Peterloo A. The contemporary plan of Saint
(24:16):
Peter's Field, which appears on the following page was published
in Farkerson's debating Report of the trial in eighteen twenty two.
As the lettering is small, some explanation is necessary. The
shaded area in the center represents the open space on
which the tragedy was enacted. To the south of it
(24:36):
is clearly seen the raised ground mentioned by Stanley, and
shown also in his plan. The windmill, which stood near
and gave its name to Windmill Street, had disappeared some
years before. The site of it is now occupied by
the central station approach. On the shaded space are marked
Husting's carriage i e. Mister Hunt's carry marked also on
(25:01):
Stanley's plan, The double line of constables and the Manchester
Yeomanry drawn up in front of the row of houses
in Mount Street labeled Magistrates assembled here. The Friends Meeting
House is marked Quakers Meeting House, and the enclosing wall
is stated to measure in height three foot seven inches
(25:21):
on the inside and ten foot three inches on the outside.
These measurements would be inserted, probably in connection with the
statement that one of the cavalry jumped his horse over
the wall. Apparently a gate and posts cross Mount Street
in front of the meeting house and lead into Saint
Peter's Field, across which two dotted lines indicate the projected
(25:44):
line of Peter Street. The position of the troops and
the line of their approach to the field are shown
as follows. The thirty first infantry are drawn up in
Brazennose Street, the upper end of which is also blocked
with a gate and post. The eighty eighth infantry are
lined up in Dickinson Street. In Portland Street are the
(26:07):
Manchester Yeomanry, and their courses shown by a dotted line
up Portland Street, along Nicholas Street, down Cooper Street, and
then round the corner of Cooper's Garden Wall now the
site of the northwestern corner of the Midland Hotel, into
Mount Street. The plans stating that the Manchester Yeomanry came
(26:27):
this way to the ground. Another troop of the Manchester
Yeomanry is drawn up in front of Saint John's Church
in Byron Street. Facing them in the same street are
shown the fifteenth Hussars in two sections, presumably representing the
two squadrons mentioned by Lieutenant Joliffe in his letter. Lastly,
(26:49):
the Cheshire Yeomanry are drawn up in Saint John Street
off Deansgate, and the line of approach of all these
mounted troops is shown by a dotted line passing along
Byron Street, Saint John Street southward down Deansgate, then along
Fleet Street, up Lower Moseley Street and along the raised
ground already mentioned to Saint Peter's Field. The inscription on
(27:13):
the plan reading the fifteenth Hussars one troop of the
Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry came this way to the ground.
The artillery are not shown. The scale of yards given
on the plan shows that Stanley's estimate of one hundred
yards as the distance from mister Buxton's house to the
Hustings was exactly correct. B rose contemporary picture of Peterloo,
(27:38):
which is shown on the following page, is perhaps the
best of a number of sketches extant the details are
fairly accurate. In the background on the extreme left is
seen to quote Bamford, the corner of a garden wall,
round which the Manchester Yeomanry in blue and white uniform
came trotting sword in hand, to the front of a
(28:00):
row of new houses. The corner is on the site
of the northwestern corner of the Midland Hotel, the new
houses or on the site of the present Midland Buffet.
Mister Hewitt's factory in the distance was just off Lower
Moseley Street. The row of houses to the right of
this in the background was on the upper side of
(28:20):
Windmill Street. The hustings are on the site of the
southeastern corner of the Free Trade Hall. Standing on them
we may distinguish mister Hunt and the leader of the
Manchester Female Reformers. Around them are the banners of the
various contingents. We may even make out the legend no
corn laws on the one in front the banner. Polls
(28:43):
are shape to resemble caps of liberty, as shown in
another of our illustrations. The crowder occupying the site of
the Free Trade Hall, The Theatre Royal, the y MCA,
the Gaiety, and a number of adjoining buildings. The moment
seized by the artist for his picture is that in
which the Manchester Yeomanry, many of whom are scattered and
(29:06):
entangled among the crowd, have reached the hustings, while in
the distance the Hussars can just be seen lining up
in Mount Street and charging to their relief. The crowd,
consisting of men, women and children, are seen dispersing in
all directions. The view might be imagined to have been
taken from the roof of a building which then occupied
(29:29):
the site of the present Albert Hall in Peters Street.
Other contemporary prints include Saint Peter's Church and the Friends
Meeting House in the picture end of three Accounts of
Peterloo by F. FE Bruton
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