J. B. Smith - Three Accounts of Peterloo by Eyewitnesses

Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith; with Bishop Stanley's Evidence at the Trial

Published by Good Press, 2019

EAN 4057664563316

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Of the three accounts of the Tragedy of Peterloo given here, two (the first and third) have never been published before. The second appeared in the Life of Lord Sidmouth in 1847. All three, written with care and judgment, by men who afterwards rose to eminence, form a valuable contribution to the understanding of an event, the accounts of which have been for the most part distorted and misleading. Moreover, as each of the three writers deals with a different phase of the days happenings, the accounts complement one another.

The Editor had already arranged for the publication of the first, when he received the following letter from Lord Sheffield, dated Penrhos, Holyhead, August 21st, 1919:

Lord Sheffield supported his suggestion by enclosing a cheque towards the cost of printing, and this made easy the publication of the whole. Lord Sheffield also kindly lent the portrait of Bishop Stanley, which appears as the Frontispiece.

Acknowledgments are due, besides: (1) to Mr. Henry Guppy, M.A., for permission to use the blocks of Wroes picture of Peterloo, and the Plan from the Story of Peterloo in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library for October, 1919; and to copy a page of the Account-book of the Relief Committee; (2) to Lady Durning Lawrence, who (with the late Mr. C. W. Sutton, M.A.) gave permission to print the Extract from the Reminiscences of Mr. J. B. Smith, and to reproduce his portrait; (3) to Mr. W. Marcroft of Southport; and Messrs. Hirst & Rennie of Oldham, for the loan of the blocks of Orator Hunt, the Hunt Memorial, and the Peterloo Medal; (4) to Mr. John Murray for leave to reprint Lieutenant Jolliffes letter; (5) to Mr. W. W. Manfield, for the loan of the three Relics of Peterloo; and (6) to Mr. R. H. Fletcher, amateur photographer, of Eccles, for photographing the relics, etc.

F. A. B.

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BISHOP STANLEY

The Rev. Edward Stanley (17791849) was the second son of Sir J. T. Stanley, the Sixth Baronet, and Margaret Owen, of Penrhos, Anglesey. His elder brother was the first Baron Stanley of Alderley. As a boy, he had a natural inclination for the sea, but this was not encouraged. For thirty-two years he was Rector of Alderley, in Cheshire. While making himself beloved as a Parish Priest, he found time for many scientific and other interests. His Familiar History of Birds is a standard work; he advocated, and assisted in, the teaching of Science and Temperance at Alderley; and he became one of the first Presidents of the Manchester Statistical Society. Though he declined the See of Manchester, when it was offered him, he accepted from Lord Melbourne, in 1837, the Bishopric of Norwich, and introduced a number of reforms into that diocese. A short memoir of him was written by his son, the famous Dean of Westminster.

At the date of Peterloo, a number of clergymen sat on the Bench of Magistrates for Lancashire and Cheshire, but Stanley stated clearly at the Trial that he was not a Magistrate. He was then forty years of age, and Rector of Alderley, and in his evidence he was careful to say that his narrative of Peterloo was compiled about two months after the event, for private circulation among his friends, and had never been published. It is clear that a copy was in the hands of Counsel who cross-examined him at the Trial in 1822. The manuscript is very neatly written (I should conjecture by Stanley himself) on nine large quarto pages, the plan being drawn by the same hand, and the notes given at the end. I have thought it more convenient for the reader to have the notes thrown to the foot of the respective pages. The manuscript was lithographed, in 1819, by the Lithographic Press, Westminster, and entered at Stationers Hall. I found on enquiry that there was one copy in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum (Add. MSS., 30142, ff. 7883). It is addressed to Major-Gen. Sir Robert Wilson, and sealed with the Stanley crest. The authorship was not known, and the Keeper of the MSS. was glad to be able to add this to the document as the result of my communication. In the Printed Book Department of the British Museum there is a second copy, catalogued under Manchester, with press-mark 8133i. There is no trace of Stanleys MS. in the Public Records Office. I can find no other copy but the one at the Manchester Reference Library, which is in excellent preservation, and has recently been rebound. Mr. J. C. Hobhouse quoted from Stanleys narrative once in a speech in the House of Commons. Speaking on May 19th, 1821, in support of a Petition for an enquiry as to the outrage at Manchester, Mr. Hobhouse, following Sir Francis Burdett, said: The Rev. Mr. Stanley, who watched from a room above the magistrates, saw no stones or sticks used, though if any stone larger than a pebble had been thrown, he must have seen it. I have not found any other reference to the narrative except that made by Counsel at the Trial, and that is recorded in the Evidence which follows.

Three notes may find a place here. The first two refer to points mentioned by Stanley:

1. Pigot and Deans Manchester Directory for 1819 mentions:

I do not find Mr. Buxtons shop, which is mentioned by Stanley; nor are Pickfords described as timber merchants, though timber may easily have been stacked in their yard.

Stanleys movements on reaching Manchester are not, at a first reading, quite clear. Riding in from Alderley, he seems to have approached by way of Oxford Road, passing (as he tells us) the Manchester Yeomanry, posted at Pickfords yard. At twelve oclock, he turned up Mosley Street (very likely to avoid the crowd which was already filling the Square) and in Mosley Street he met the contingent of Reformers coming from Ashton. He then proceeded to Mr. Buxtons