Human Rights
A complete list of all the supporting documents for the time periods between 1215 and 1945.
Date: 1819. Catalogue reference: MPI 1/134
This poster demonstrates the way in which the 'Peterloo Massacre' immediately became part of positive radical propaganda. The picture had been purchased by John Jenkins, an ex-weaver and ex-Royal Marine, who 'by the aid of a magnifying glass [made the figures] appear as large as life' while he provided a suitably vivid narrative. In November 1819 Jenkins had been exhibiting the picture at Chudleigh, in Devon, when his activities came to the attention of Gilbert Burrington, the vicar of Chudleigh and an active magistrate. Burrington committed Jenkins to the Exeter house of correction as a vagrant and passed information of his seditious conduct to the Home Secretary.
