The March to Peterloo: Politics and Festivity in Late Georgian England

Abstract

In March 1820 Henry Hunt, Samuel Bamford and others were on trial at York assizes for conspiracy and sedition in connection with the Manchester reform meeting of Monday 16 August 1819 — the meeting which had ended in the ‘Peterloo massacre’. Bamford defended himself, and his line of defence at times puzzled the judge. Bamford’s star witness was James Dyson, a neighbour from Middleton. Dyson’s description of the march as a kind of festive village outing seemed impossible to reconcile with the picture of a threatening military-style descent on Manchester which the prosecution had presented. The wives of several of the party accompanied their husbands. There were several hundred of women with our party and the Rochdale party. I saw many of them at Manchester . . . the women who accompanied us were relatives of the men who marched in the procession. It is customary at our wakes and rush-carts in Lancashire to have banners and music; the rush-carts are held on a Saturday, and on the following Monday the men walk in procession, but they do not keep the step. Justice Bayley asked for an explanation of the term ‘rush cart’. Mr Bamford said, that it is an annual custom to have a cart in which rushes are neatly placed; this cart is drawn by young men decorated with ribbons, and preceded by young women, music, etc.1