Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

==Assembly==
{|  style="margin:0 0 1em 1em; width:315px; border:1px solid #8888aa; background:#f7f8ff; float:right;"  cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|-
!  style="padding:0 5px; background:#ccf; text-align:center;" colspan="5"| Contingents<br /><small>sent to St Peter's Field{{sfnp|Poole|2019|p=431 note 57}}<br /> Use a cursor to explore this imagemap.</small>
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="5"|<!-- This is an imagemap. It is tricky to edit. By all means look but don't edit without care. The tool that created it was http://tools.wikimedia.de/~dapete/ImageMapEdit/ImageMapEdit.html?en -->
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Image:Peterloo contingents map.svg|300px|

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rect 395 124 428 152 [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury (sent 3,000)]]
rect 507 191 586 212 [[Chadderton]]
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rect 314 304 369 322 [[Eccles, Greater Manchester|Eccles]]
rect 541 256 627 269 [[Failsworth]]
rect 592 364 659 386 [[Gee Cross]]
rect 424 141 497 155 [[Heywood, Greater Manchester|Heywood]]
rect 264 344 312 370 [[Irlam]]
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rect 178 283 233 305 [[Leigh, Greater Manchester|Leigh]]
rect 430 210 509 222 [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton (sent 3,000)]]
rect 636 240 695 259 [[Mossley]]
poly 568 219 568 243 619 244 618 231 582 230 582 218 571 218 [[Oldham|Oldham (sent 6–10,000)]]
rect 519 97 585 121 [[Rochdale|Rochdale (sent 3,000)]]
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rect 619 292 701 317 [[Stalybridge]]
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rect 504 411 578 439 [[Stockport|Stockport (sent 1,500–5,000)]]
rect 314 365 374 388 [[Urmston]]
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rect 343 192 424 214 [[Whitefield, Greater Manchester|Whitefield]]
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rect 22 490 204 515 [[#Victuallers|scale – Five miles]]
rect 437 293 529 349 [[:Image:Map of Peterloo Massacre.png|St. Peter's Field]]
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|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
! style="width:10%;"|
! style="width:30%;"| <small>'''[[Altrincham]]'''</small>
! style="width:15%;"|
! style="width:30%;"| <small>'''[[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]]'''</small>
! style="width:15%;"| <small>3,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:25px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Ashton-under-Lyne]]'''</small>
| <small>2,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}
| <small>'''[[Mossley]]'''</small>
|
|- style="font-size: 90%; padding-left: 5px; background: #ececec;"
|
| <small>'''[[Atherton, Greater Manchester|Atherton]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Oldham]]'''</small>
| <small>6,000–10,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|p=118|ps=none}}
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Bolton]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Rochdale]]'''</small>
| <small>3,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}
|-  style="font-size:90%; margin-left:15px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]]'''</small>
| <small>3,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}
| <small>'''[[Royton]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Chadderton]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Saddleworth]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Shaw and Crompton|Crompton]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Salford, Greater Manchester|Salford]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Eccles, Greater Manchester|Eccles]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Stalybridge]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Failsworth]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Stretford]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Gee Cross]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Stockport]]'''</small>
| <small>1,500–5,000</small>{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=11|ps=none}}<ref name="MarlowP120-121"/>
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Heywood, Greater Manchester|Heywood]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Urmston]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Irlam]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Westhoughton]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#ececec; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Lees, Greater Manchester|Lees]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Whitefield, Greater Manchester|Whitefield]]'''</small>
|
|-  style="font-size:90%; padding-left:10px; background:#fff; text-align:left;"
|
| <small>'''[[Leigh, Greater Manchester|Leigh]]'''</small>
|
| <small>'''[[Wigan]]'''</small>
|
|}

===Preparations===
St Peter's Field was a piece of land alongside Mount Street which was being cleared to enable the last section of Peter Street to be constructed. Piles of timber lay at the end of the field nearest to the [[Friends Meeting House]], but the remainder of the field was clear.{{sfnp|Frow|Frow|1984|p=7|ps=none}} Thomas Worrell, Manchester's Assistant Surveyor of Paving, arrived to inspect the field at 7:00&nbsp;am. His job was to remove anything that might be used as a weapon, and he duly had "about a quarter of a load" of stones carted away.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=145|ps=none}}

Monday, 16 August 1819,<ref name="date-BBC">{{Cite web |title=History GCSE / National 5: What was the Peterloo Massacre of 1819? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/articles/zbdrkmn |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=BBC Teach |language=en-GB}}</ref> was a hot summer's day, with a cloudless blue sky. The fine weather almost certainly increased the size of the crowd significantly; marching from the outer townships in the cold and rain would have been a much less attractive prospect.{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|p=119|ps=none}}

The Manchester magistrates met at 9:00&nbsp;am, to breakfast at the Star Inn on [[Deansgate]] and to consider what action they should take on Henry Hunt's arrival at the meeting. By 10:30&nbsp;am they had come to no conclusions, and moved to a house on the south-eastern corner of St Peter's Field, from where they planned to observe the meeting.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|pp=152–153|ps=none}}
They were concerned that it would end in a riot, or even a rebellion, and had arranged for a substantial number of regular troops and militia [[yeomanry]] to be deployed. The military presence comprised 600&nbsp;men of the {{nowrap|[[15th Hussars]]}}; several hundred [[infantry]]men; a [[Royal Horse Artillery]] unit with two six-pounder guns; 400&nbsp;men of the [[Cheshire Yeomanry]]; 400&nbsp;[[special constable]]s; and 120&nbsp;cavalry of the [[Manchester and Salford Yeomanry]]. The Manchester & Salford Yeomanry were relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among local shopkeepers and tradesmen, the most numerous of which were [[publicans]].{{Sfnp|Reid|1989|p=88|ps=none}} Recently mocked by the ''Manchester Observer'' as "generally speaking, the fawning dependents of the great, with a few fools and a greater proportion of coxcombs, who imagine they acquire considerable importance by wearing regimentals,"{{sfnp|Bruton|1919|p=14|ps=none}} they were subsequently variously described as "younger members of the Tory party in arms",<ref name="Guardian 2007-08-13"/> and as "hot-headed young men, who had volunteered into that service from their intense hatred of Radicalism."{{sfnp|Prentice|1853|p=160|ps=none}} Socialist writer Mark Krantz has described them as "the local business mafia on horseback".{{sfnp|Krantz|2011|p=12|ps=none}} R J White described them as "exclusively cheesemongers, ironmongers and newly enriched manufacturers, (who) the people of Manchester ... thought ... a joke."{{sfnp|White|1957|p=185|ps=none}}

The [[British Army]] in the north was under the overall command of [[John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford|General Sir John Byng]]. When he had initially learned that the meeting was scheduled for 2 August he wrote to the [[Home Office]] stating that he hoped the Manchester magistrates would show firmness on the day:

{{blockquote|I will be prepared to go there, and will have in that neighbourhood, that is within an easy day's march, 8&nbsp;squadron of cavalry, 18&nbsp;companies of infantry and the guns. I am sure I can add to the Yeomanry if requisite. I hope therefore the civil authorities will not be deterred from doing their duty.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=136|ps=none}}}}

He then excused himself from attendance, however, as the meeting on the 9th clashed with the horse races at [[York]], a fashionable event at which Byng had entries in two races. He wrote to the Home Office, saying that although he would still be prepared to be in command in Manchester on the day of the meeting if it was thought really necessary, he had absolute confidence in his deputy commander, Lieutenant Colonel [[Guy L'Estrange]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riding |first=Jacqueline |title=Peterloo: the story of the Manchester massacre |publisher=Head of Zeus |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-78669-583-3 |location=London |pages=157–165, 203–205 |oclc=1017592330}}</ref> The postponement to 16 August made it possible for Byng to attend after the races but he chose not to, having had enough of dealing with the Manchester magistrates. He had dealt firmly and bloodlessly with the Blanketeers two years before; L'Estrange was to exhibit no such qualities of command.{{sfnp|Poole|2019}}

===Meeting===
The crowd that gathered in St Peter's Field arrived in disciplined and organised contingents. Contingents were sent from all around the region, the largest and "best dressed" of which was a group of 10,000 who had travelled from Oldham Green, comprising people from [[Oldham]], [[Royton]] (which included a sizeable female section), [[Shaw and Crompton|Crompton]], [[Lees, Greater Manchester|Lees]], [[Saddleworth]] and [[Mossley]].{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|p=118|ps=none}} Other sizeable contingents marched from [[Middleton, Greater Manchester|Middleton]] and [[Rochdale]] (6,000 strong) and [[Stockport]] (1,500–5,000 strong).<ref name="MarlowP120-121">Marlow (1969), pp.&nbsp;120–121.</ref> Reports of the size of the crowd vary substantially. Contemporaries estimated it from 30,000 to as many as 150,000; modern estimates have been 50,000–80,000.{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|p=125|ps=none}} Recent work however has reduced these numbers. A reasonably reliable count of the numbers on the various marches indicates a total of around 20,000 who came in from outside Manchester, but the number who attended informally from Manchester and Salford is much harder to estimate. Bush argues from the casualty figures that two-thirds were from Manchester and Salford, suggesting a total crowd of 50,000,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bush, M. L. |title=The casualties of Peterloo |date=2005 |publisher=Carnegie Pub |isbn=1-85936-125-0 |location=Lancaster |oclc=71224394}}</ref> but Poole revises this to a half, bringing the total down to 40,000.{{sfnp|Poole|2019|pp=360–364}} Steele's estimate of the capacity of the ground suggests 30,000 which, if correct, lowers the attendance but raises the casualty rate.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/peterloo-massacre-numbers-deaths-injuries-how-many-people-bicentenary-anniversary/ |title=A more shocking massacre? How we might have over-estimated the Peterloo crowds |last=Steele |first=David |date=8 August 1819 |website=BBC History Extra |access-date=21 March 2020 |archive-date=21 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321231919/https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/peterloo-massacre-numbers-deaths-injuries-how-many-people-bicentenary-anniversary/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The assembly was intended by its organisers to be a peaceful meeting; Henry Hunt had exhorted everyone attending to come "armed with no other weapon but that of a self-approving conscience",{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=148|ps=none}} and many were wearing their "Sunday best" clothes.{{sfnp|Frow|Frow|1984|p=7|ps=none}} Samuel Bamford recounts the following incident, which occurred as the Middleton contingent reached the outskirts of Manchester:

{{blockquote|On the bank of an open field on our left I perceived a gentleman observing us attentively. He beckoned me, and I went to him. He was one of my late employers. He took my hand, and rather concernedly, but kindly, said he hoped no harm was intended by all those people who were coming in. I said "I would pledge my life for their entire peaceableness." I asked him to notice them, "did they look like persons wishing to outrage the law? were they not, on the contrary, evidently heads of decent working families? or members of such families?" "No, no," I said, "my dear sir, and old respected master, if any wrong or violence take place, they will be committed by men of a different stamp from these." He said he was very glad to hear me say so; he was happy he had seen me, and gratified by the manner in which I had expressed myself. I asked, did he think we should be interrupted at the meeting? he said he did not believe we should; "then," I replied, "all will be well"; and shaking hands, with mutual good wishes, I left him, and took my station as before.{{sfnp|Bamford|1844|p=202|ps=none}}}}

Although [[William Robert Hay]], chairman of the [[Salford Hundred]] [[Quarter Sessions]], claimed that "The active part of the meeting may be said to have come in wholly from the country",{{sfnp|Frangopulo|1977|p=33|ps=none}} others such as [[John Shuttleworth (industrialist)|John Shuttleworth]], a local cotton dealer, estimated that most were from Manchester, a view that would subsequently be supported by the casualty lists. Of the casualties whose residence was recorded, sixty-one per cent lived within a three-mile radius of the centre of Manchester.{{sfnp|Bush|2005|p=19|ps=none}} Some groups carried banners with texts like "No Corn Laws", "Annual Parliaments", "Universal suffrage" and "Vote By Ballot".{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|pp=119–120|ps=none}} The first female reform societies were established in the textile areas in 1819 and women from the [[Manchester Female Reform Society]], dressed in white, accompanied Hunt to the platform. The society's president [[Mary Fildes]] rode in Hunt's carriage carrying its flag.{{sfnp|Vallance|2013|p=10|ps=none}} The only banner known to have survived is in Middleton Public Library; it was carried by Thomas Redford, who was injured by a yeomanry sabre. Made of green silk embossed with gold lettering, one side of the banner is inscribed "Liberty and Fraternity" and the other "Unity and Strength."{{sfnp|Marlow|1969|pp=119–120|ps=none}} It is the world's oldest political banner.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=The Middleton Peterloo Banner |title=Return to Peterloo |publisher=Carnegie |author=Poole, Robert |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-85936-225-9 |location=Manchester |pages=159–171 |oclc=893558457}}</ref>
[[File:Peterloo massacre dreadful scene at Manchester.jpg|thumb|right|A print published on 27 August 1819 depicting [[Henry Hunt (politician)|Hunt's]] arrest by the constables]]

At about noon, several hundred special constables were led onto the field. They formed two lines in the crowd a few yards apart, in an attempt to form a corridor through the crowd between the house where the magistrates were watching and the hustings, two wagons lashed together. Believing that this might be intended as the route by which the magistrates would later send their representatives to arrest the speakers, some members of the crowd pushed the wagons away from the constables, and pressed around the hustings to form a human barrier.{{sfnp|Reid|1989|p=161|ps=none}}

Hunt's carriage arrived at the meeting shortly after 1:00&nbsp;pm, and he made his way to the hustings. Alongside Hunt on the speakers' stand were John Knight, a cotton manufacturer and reformer, Joseph Johnson, the organiser of the meeting, John Thacker Saxton, managing editor of the ''Manchester Observer'', the publisher [[Richard Carlile]], and George Swift, reformer and shoemaker. There were also a number of reporters, including John Tyas of ''The Times'', John Smith of the ''Liverpool Mercury'' and [[Edward Baines (1800–1890)|Edward Baines Jr]], the son of the editor of the ''Leeds Mercury.''{{sfnp|Reid|1989|pp=162–163|ps=none}} By this time St Peter's Field, an area of {{cvt|14000|sqyd|m2|-2}}, was packed with tens of thousands of men, women and children. The crowd around the speakers was so dense that "their hats seemed to touch"; large groups of curious spectators gathered on the outskirts of the crowd.