Bamford, Samuel

(1788-1872)

   Lancashire weaver, poet, and journalist who campaigned for the reform of working-class conditions. In 1819 he was imprisoned for taking part in a meeting in St. Peter's Fields Manchester that led to the "Peterloo Massacre," where mounted troops dispersed the peaceful. About 500 people were injured and 11 killed. Bamford's publications include: An Account of the Arrest and Imprisonment of Samuel Bamford, Middleton, on Suspicion of High Treason, 1817. The Weaver Boy, or Miscellaneous Poetry, 1819. Homely Rhymes, 1843. Passages in the Life of a Radical, 1840-4. Tawk o'Seawth Lankeshur, by Samhul Beamfort, 1850 (local dialect). Life of Amos Ogden, 1853. The Dialect of South Lancashire, or Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary, with his Rhymes, with Glossary, 1854. Early Days, 1849, 1859. Some of his other poems: "The Bard's Reformation," "Farewell to My Cottage," "Homely Rhymes on Bad Times," "The Landowner," "Touch Him!" "God help the poor" (gives wonderful insight into what it was like to be poor in England in 1819 a child with pale lips and frozen red hands).

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Modern History Sourcebook: Samuel Bamford (1788-1872): Passages in the Life of a Radical-on the Peterloo Massacre, 1819 (www. fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1819bamford.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poorhouse Fugitives: Self-Taught Poets and Poetry in Victorian Britain. Brian Maidment, ed. Carcanet, 1987.