Now no matter how many horrific stories come out of Ukraine and other places, nothing still prepares you for the violence of Peterloo.
According to one source, a quarter of the known recorded causalities were women, even though they comprised just 12% of those present on the day. *
And when you delve deeper into each one, the horror is all the greater.
Margaret Downes was “dreadfully cut in the breast; secreted clandestinely and not heard of, believed dead”, Mary Hays, “knocked down, trampled by cavalry, foot stripped of flesh & nails, pregnant, died 17 December 1819”, Sarah Jones, “severely beaten on the head, and much bruised by constables’ truncheons, suspected dead”, and Martha Partington, “thrown into a cellar on Bridge Street and was killed, died 16 Aug 1819.”**
Added to these, there was William Fildes aged just two, who was the “child of Ann,and was rode over by cavalry, died 16 August 1819, and is buried Swedenborgian Chapel, Salford”.
In the case of four of the five, we know where they lived, and while their houses will have vanished long ago, using maps and street directories it is possible to revisit both their homes and the surrounding area as it would have been in the early 19th century.
And those maps, directories along with other official records allow us to zoom in on those who perpetuated the crimes, most of which were at the hands of the Manchester Yeomanry, who we might think of as a volunteer military defence force, first raised during the early years of the wars with Revolutionary France, but were also used to quell civil unrest.
The Manchester Yeomanry was raised in 1817, in the aftermath of the March of the Blanketeers, when a group of mainly Lancashire weavers intended to march to London and present a petition over the dire state of the Lancashire textile industry and the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. ****
Following its suppression, the authorities set about establishing a local yeomanry, which was drawn not only from the “people of plenty” but also included, both skilled and unskilled workers and a range of shopkeepers, publicans and others.
Leaving aside the question of how some of the men could afford to provide a horse, they were indeed a cross section of the population, and we know the names of 101 of them who were at Peterloo, and despite my dislike for their actions I am curious about them.
At which point it would be easy to dismiss them all as bunch of “class traitors”, vicious thugs who participated with glee in the suppression of the “Manchester Meeting”, and while that might be accurate of some if not most of them, it doesn’t go deeper enough in offering up an explanation.
I doubt that there exists a detailed collection of the thoughts and sayings of the 101, but it is possible to track many of them, not only through their occupations but to where in the city they lived.
Moreover, their devotion to the social order can be tracked back across the late 18th century through a series of “loyalist” activities during the 1790s, including the Church and King movement, the attack on the home of the radical Thomas Walker in South Parade, and the burning of effigies of Thomas Pain, of which the one that occurred at the top of Deansgate in December 1792 was recorded in detail.
And similar loyalist activities happened during the Jacobite rising in 1745, and back into the 17th century. Further evidence is there in the split over the abolition of the Slave Trade.
So while I take pride in reading that 10,000 Mancunians signed a petition to Parliament in 1788 calling for the abolition of the trade, there was a counter petition of 4,000, which must have been well organized.
And that same organization can be seen in the way that the spontaneous outbursts of loyalty were worked on, both in the opposition to granting greater freedom to non-Anglicans to hold official posts and the reaction to the French Revolution.
The impetus clearly comes from those in the establishment who felt they had most to lose, but according to an excellent short piece by Frank O’Gorman, “Members of the highest classes tended to fill ornamental roles, the practical functions of loyalism being the work of men from the middling orders”, who were “principally from the ranks of the trading, manufacturing and official elements, some of whom were from quite humble backgrounds”.*****
All of which might explain why amongst the ranks who charged into the crowd on St Peter’s Fields we can count, William Benson , the landlord of the Fox on Jackson’s Row, Mr. Richard Whitelaw, an Attorney, living on King Street, and Robert Thorpe, a surgeon living at 21 Oldham Street.
Along with Samuel Green who had a printing business on New Garrett, and a host of shop keepers, and skilled and non skilled workers, with just “two gentleman”, a Professor of Dance and even a quack doctor.
Nor were they drawn exclusively from Manchester, for the same pattern of occupations can be replicated by those from Salford, including Edward Hulme of the Blue Cap on Greengate, the tobacconist, James Hardman, the businessman, John Bowker and the “hackney writer”, James Hamnett.
And for those who want to stray into Stretford, the township offered up a collection of butchers, a saddler, that quack doctor and even a labourer.
None of which might help explain the glee at which the Yeomanry went about their task, but might just throw a bit of light on who they were, leaving a heap more research to be done and a lot more detailed investigation of those who pulled the loyalist strings.
Location; Manchester
Picture; "To Henry Hunt, Esqr. as chairman of the meeting assembled on St. Peter's Field, Manchester on the 16th. of August, 1819", Peterloo, Manchester, print published by Richard Carlile, m01563, and Manchester Heroes", Peterloo, print from etching by unknown artist, published by S W Fores, 1819, m07587
courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Morgan, Alison, Starving mothers and murdered children in cultural representations of Peterloo, Return to Peterloo Manchester Regional History Review volume 23 2012
**Records of the Manchester Peterloo Witnesses and casualties, 1819, findmypast, www.findmypast.co.uk
***Sarah Jones, 96 Silk Street, off George Leigh Street, Mary Hayes, Rawlinson Buildings Oxford Road, Chorlton Row, Mary Partington, King Street Eccles, William Fildes, 23 Kennedy Street
****The march was violently broken up and its leaders imprisoned. Bamford, Samuel, Bamford’s Life of a Radical, Vol 2, 1905 page 32
*****O’Gorman, Frank, Manchester Loyalism in the 1770s, Return to Peterloo Manchester Regional History Review volume 23 2012
And when you delve deeper into each one, the horror is all the greater.
Margaret Downes was “dreadfully cut in the breast; secreted clandestinely and not heard of, believed dead”, Mary Hays, “knocked down, trampled by cavalry, foot stripped of flesh & nails, pregnant, died 17 December 1819”, Sarah Jones, “severely beaten on the head, and much bruised by constables’ truncheons, suspected dead”, and Martha Partington, “thrown into a cellar on Bridge Street and was killed, died 16 Aug 1819.”**
Added to these, there was William Fildes aged just two, who was the “child of Ann,and was rode over by cavalry, died 16 August 1819, and is buried Swedenborgian Chapel, Salford”.
In the case of four of the five, we know where they lived, and while their houses will have vanished long ago, using maps and street directories it is possible to revisit both their homes and the surrounding area as it would have been in the early 19th century.
The Manchester Yeomanry was raised in 1817, in the aftermath of the March of the Blanketeers, when a group of mainly Lancashire weavers intended to march to London and present a petition over the dire state of the Lancashire textile industry and the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. ****
Following its suppression, the authorities set about establishing a local yeomanry, which was drawn not only from the “people of plenty” but also included, both skilled and unskilled workers and a range of shopkeepers, publicans and others.
At which point it would be easy to dismiss them all as bunch of “class traitors”, vicious thugs who participated with glee in the suppression of the “Manchester Meeting”, and while that might be accurate of some if not most of them, it doesn’t go deeper enough in offering up an explanation.
I doubt that there exists a detailed collection of the thoughts and sayings of the 101, but it is possible to track many of them, not only through their occupations but to where in the city they lived.
Moreover, their devotion to the social order can be tracked back across the late 18th century through a series of “loyalist” activities during the 1790s, including the Church and King movement, the attack on the home of the radical Thomas Walker in South Parade, and the burning of effigies of Thomas Pain, of which the one that occurred at the top of Deansgate in December 1792 was recorded in detail.
So while I take pride in reading that 10,000 Mancunians signed a petition to Parliament in 1788 calling for the abolition of the trade, there was a counter petition of 4,000, which must have been well organized.
And that same organization can be seen in the way that the spontaneous outbursts of loyalty were worked on, both in the opposition to granting greater freedom to non-Anglicans to hold official posts and the reaction to the French Revolution.
The impetus clearly comes from those in the establishment who felt they had most to lose, but according to an excellent short piece by Frank O’Gorman, “Members of the highest classes tended to fill ornamental roles, the practical functions of loyalism being the work of men from the middling orders”, who were “principally from the ranks of the trading, manufacturing and official elements, some of whom were from quite humble backgrounds”.*****
Along with Samuel Green who had a printing business on New Garrett, and a host of shop keepers, and skilled and non skilled workers, with just “two gentleman”, a Professor of Dance and even a quack doctor.
Nor were they drawn exclusively from Manchester, for the same pattern of occupations can be replicated by those from Salford, including Edward Hulme of the Blue Cap on Greengate, the tobacconist, James Hardman, the businessman, John Bowker and the “hackney writer”, James Hamnett.
And for those who want to stray into Stretford, the township offered up a collection of butchers, a saddler, that quack doctor and even a labourer.
Location; Manchester
Picture; "To Henry Hunt, Esqr. as chairman of the meeting assembled on St. Peter's Field, Manchester on the 16th. of August, 1819", Peterloo, Manchester, print published by Richard Carlile, m01563, and Manchester Heroes", Peterloo, print from etching by unknown artist, published by S W Fores, 1819, m07587
courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Morgan, Alison, Starving mothers and murdered children in cultural representations of Peterloo, Return to Peterloo Manchester Regional History Review volume 23 2012
**Records of the Manchester Peterloo Witnesses and casualties, 1819, findmypast, www.findmypast.co.uk
***Sarah Jones, 96 Silk Street, off George Leigh Street, Mary Hayes, Rawlinson Buildings Oxford Road, Chorlton Row, Mary Partington, King Street Eccles, William Fildes, 23 Kennedy Street
****The march was violently broken up and its leaders imprisoned. Bamford, Samuel, Bamford’s Life of a Radical, Vol 2, 1905 page 32
*****O’Gorman, Frank, Manchester Loyalism in the 1770s, Return to Peterloo Manchester Regional History Review volume 23 2012
Keep up the good work, Andrew.
ReplyDelete