Editing Peterloo Massacre (section)

===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}}