Absalom Watkin

[2] After his father died, the 14-year old Absalom was sent to live with and work for his uncle, John Watkin, who was a cotton and calico merchant with a small weaving and finishing business.

In 1819 that paper invited Henry "Orator" Hunt to attend a public meeting regarding electoral reform, the outcome of which led Manchester Observer editor James Wroe to coin the term Peterloo Massacre.

[1] Watkin did not attend the rally, but in line with his fellow members of the Little Circle he pressed for an independent public inquiry into the tragedy, which was refused.

[1] As a result, after repeated police raids closed down the Manchester Observer, in 1821 Watkin and his fellows in the Little Circle backed then cotton merchant John Edward Taylor to found the moderate conformist Manchester Guardian newspaper (today Guardian national newspaper), which Taylor edited for the rest of his life.

In December 1827, Potter and Shuttleworth suggested that Watkin should take over editorship of the now radicalised Manchester Gazette from Archibald Prentice, but he declined the offer.

As a result, Parliament passed the Reform Act 1832, and the group gave Manchester its first two post-reform MPs: Mark Philips and Charles Poulett Thomson.

However, he was strongly opposed to the Chartist campaign, and in August 1842 helped the police to defend Manchester from rioters demanding universal suffrage.