Three Accounts of Peterloo Part 7

The Rev. W. R. Hay, Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates, was rewarded by being presented to the living of Rochdale, worth 2,000 a year.

Hunt and his companions were committed to Lancaster, and subsequently tried at York, where he was found guilty and sentenced to be imprisoned for two years and a half, and Johnson, Healey, and Bamford to one year's imprisonment.

The b.l.o.o.d.y proceedings at Peterloo startled the whole nation. Meetings were held everywhere, denouncing them in the strongest terms. Sir Francis Burdett addressed a letter to the Electors of Westminster, expressing his "Shame, grief, and indignation" at the proceedings, and was prosecuted by the Attorney-General for Libel and was fined 2,000 and imprisoned for three months. Lord Fitzwilliam, for attending a public meeting to express disapprobation at the means by which the meeting at Peterloo was dispersed, was dismissed from his office as Lord Lieutenant of Yorks.h.i.+re.

These proceedings produced a deep impression on the minds of thoughtful men, who began to think we were on the brink of despotism, and that the time had arrived when the country should be no longer ruled by Landowners and Boroughmongers, but by representatives chosen by the people....

[Ill.u.s.tration: BANNER CARRIED AT PETERLOO

_Photo by R. H. Fletcher_

_To face page 75_]

APPENDIX A.

Some Relics of Peterloo

1.--A BANNER CARRIED AT PETERLOO.

At the entrance to the Reading-room of 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 entrance is LIBERTY 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." (See Ill.u.s.tration opposite).

In chapter x.x.xIII. of _Pa.s.sages in the Life of a Radical_ Bamford speaks of "the colours; a blue one of silk, with inscriptions in golden letters: UNITY AND STRENGTH, LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY. A green one of silk, with golden letters, PARLIAMENTS ANNUAL, SUFFRAGE UNIVERSAL." Apparently the Banner here figured is the one of which he writes later in chapter x.x.xVI.: "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. The Banner was exhibited from a window of the Suffield's Arms public-house." The Banner is now carefully preserved between sheets of gla.s.s. The photograph was taken under considerable difficulties as regards light by Mr. R. H. Fletcher, of Eccles. The Chadderton Banner, though much dilapidated, is 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.

2.--BAMFORD'S COTTAGE.

Some distance higher up the town may be seen the house where Bamford lived at the date of Peterloo. Over the door is a stone inscribed: "Samuel Bamford resided and was arrested in this house, Aug. 26, 1819." Bamford describes the event in detail in chapter XL of the work named above, beginning: "About two o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of August, that is, on the tenth morning after the fatal meeting, I was awoke by footsteps in the street opposite my residence. Presently they increased in number, etc." The photograph is again by Mr. R. H. Fletcher.

(See Ill.u.s.tration.) In the Churchyard above may be seen Bamford's tomb and also the monument raised to his memory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAMUEL BAMFORD'S HOUSE AT MIDDLETON

_Photo by R. H. Fletcher_

_To face page 76_]

3.--CONSTABLES' STAVES.

(_a_) In the Catalogue of the _Old Manchester & Salford Exhibition_ (held at the Art Gallery in 1904), on p. 27, exhibit 157 appears as "Handcuffs belonging to Joe Nadin, Deputy Constable of Manchester at the time of Peterloo;" lent by G. C. Yates, Esq. On the same page, exhibit 167 is a "Special Constable's Staff, used at the time of Peterloo in Manchester, and then the property of Mr. Beever;" lent by C. s.h.i.+el, Esq. This collection is now for the most part dispersed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THREE RELICS OF PETERLOO

_Photo by R. H. Fletcher_

_To face page 77_]

(_b_) Mr. T. Swindells, 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 Fildes. It is inscribed: "A relic of Peterloo. Special Constable's Staff which belonged to the late James and Thomas Fildes, grocers, Shudehill, Manchester."

(_c_) In November, 1919, on the afternoon of the day on which I was to lecture on _The Story of Peterloo_, at the Rylands Library, Mr. W. W.

Manfield, of Chorlton-c.u.m-Hardy, brought me three interesting relics of Peterloo, which have been in the possession of his family since 1819. 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 St. Peter's fields. There they picked up the three relics, which have been carefully preserved ever since. One of them is a long, heavy Constable's baton, apparently of rosewood, with the Royal Arms painted at the thicker end. (See Ill.u.s.tration opposite.)

4.--HEAD OF FLAGSTAFF.

The second of Mr. Manfield's relics is the head of one of the Banner poles carried at Peterloo. It is shaped like the traditional cap of Liberty, and inscribed in neat gilt capitals: "Hunt and Liberty." (See Ill.u.s.tration.)

5.--HUSSAR'S PLUME.

The third of Mr. Manfield's relics is a plume of horsehair, apparently originally dyed red, though (if so) much of the dye has faded. This, it may be presumed, was the plume from the helmet of one of the Hussars. It has been mentioned that the 15th Hussars wear a scarlet plume. These three relics have been photographed on one plate by Mr. Fletcher. (See Ill.u.s.tration opposite to page 77.)

6.--ACCOUNT-BOOK OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEE.

In the year of the Centenary, Mr. 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 Mr. R. H. Fletcher for the present volume.

(See Ill.u.s.tration.) Mr. Guppy's account of the volume (_Bulletin of Rylands Library_, April to November, 1919, p. 191) 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 names, addresses, and injuries of 347 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 Mr.

Bruton's _Story of Peterloo_. Thus: the cases include those of Elizabeth Gaunt (mentioned on pp. 274 and 275), of Mrs. Fildes (on p. 274), of Thomas Redford (on pp. 285, 291, and 294). There are references to the loose timber (see pp. 269, 284 and 294), the injuries to Special Constables (see p. 280), the fight near the Friends' Meeting-house (see pp. 284 and 289), the oak trees growing near that building (see pp. 269, 294), the white hat as a symbol of Radicalism (see p. 273), the fear of losing employment evinced by the wounded (see p. 291), the infantry intercepting fugitives (see p. 290), the child killed by a trooper in Cooper Street (see p. 277), and so on. The sum total voted by this Committee appears to have been 687; it must be remembered, however, that the sum of 3,000 mentioned on p. 291 as having been subscribed may have been used partly for legal expenses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: One Page of the Account Book of the Relief Committee.

_By permission of Mr. H. Guppy._

_Photo by R. H. Fletcher._]

Since this ma.n.u.script account-book came to light, Mr. Bruton has discovered a printed Report of the Relief Committee, in which 560 cases are described, and the amount raised to date is given as 3,408 1s. 8d., and p.r.o.nounced to be inadequate for 600 people. It also gives the amount spent on legal expenses as 1,077."

7.--ACCOUNT-BOOK RECORDING AMOUNTS RAISED FOR THE RELIEF OF SPECIAL CONSTABLES & THEIR FAMILIES.

I have to thank Dr. A. A. Mumford for calling my attention to another account-book connected with Peterloo, which I believe he met with while going over the Crossley papers at the Chetham Library. Its number in the Library Catalogue is MS. B. 3. 70. It is a small note-book ruled for cash, and ent.i.tled: "Subscriptions for Special Constables. Nos. 10 and 11."

There is a note of a Resolution carried on August 27th, 1819, to the effect that a Relief Fund should be raised on behalf of Special Constables injured at Peterloo and their families. The subscriptions recorded in this book range from 1 to 10 10s., and amount in all to about 400.