Peterloo helped spark Scotland’s 1820 Uprising
Tomorrow’s the bicentenary of the Peterloo Massacre. The events at St Peter’s Field in Manchester in 1819 when 15 protestors were killed and hundreds injured are known to many and were highlighted in Mike Leigh’s film. What’s less well known is what happened in Scotland following upon it.
The radicalism inspired by the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century had been crushed from without by its usurpation by Bonapartism and from within by brutal repression.
The end of the Napoleonic wars brought recession and former soldiers returning to Scotland faced unemployment and poverty.
Demands for the franchise and political change returned and a rally in Glasgow in 1816 attracted 40,000. Pressure increased on both sides of the Border and by 1819 tension was high.
When news of the atrocity reached Scotland there was great anger. Demonstrations took place in Edinburgh, Dundee and elsewhere.
The largest disturbance was in Paisley where a meeting was called for early September. Postponed
for a week, having initially been banned by the authorities, it was held on Meikleriggs Muir allowing for attendance from Ayrshire and Glasgow, as well as Renfrewshire.
The platform party dressed in funereal black and banners were likewise solemnly adorned.
When the meeting of some 16,000 concluded a riot broke out as delegates clashed with constabulary. Five days of rioting followed and the military were put in. Crowds of 2,000 and 3,000 fought with cavalry in the town’s narrow streets before order was finally restored.
The following year saw the 1820 Rising in Scotland which was partly driven by those events.