(1) In his book Passage in the Life of a Radical, the author, Samuel Bamford explained how he was opposed to the Blanketeers March.

On the night of Sunday, the 9th of March, I was requested to attend a meeting in the house of one of my neighbours, where a number of friends wished to hear my opinion with reference to the Blanket Meeting. I went to them and spoke freely in condemnation of the measure. I endeavoured to show them that the authorities in Manchester were not likely to permit their leaving the town in a body, with blankets and petitions, as they proposed; that they could not subsist on the road; that the cold and wet would kill numbers of them, who were already enfeebled by hunger and other deprivations. That they need not expect to be welcome wherever they went, especially in the rotten boroughs. That many persons might join their ranks who were not reformers but enemies of reform, hired perhaps to bring them and their cause into disgrace; that if these persons began to plunder on the road, the punishment and disgrace would be visited on the whole body; that the would be denounced as robbers and rebels, and the military would be brought to cut them down or take them prisoners. Whether it was in consequence of what I said I cannot tell; but I was afterwards gratified on hearing that no person from Middleton went as a Blanketeer.

The meeting took place; but I not being there, my brief description must be taken as the account of others. The assemblage consisted almost entirely of operatives, four or five thousand in number. Many of the individuals were observed to have blankets, rugs, or large coats, rolled up and tied, knapsack like, on their backs; some carried bundles under their arms; some had papers, supposed to be petitions rolled up; and some had stout walking sticks. The magistrates came upon the field and read the Riot Act; the meeting was afterwards dispersed by the military and special constables, and twenty-nine persons were apprehended, amongst whom were two young men, named Bagguley and Drummond, who had recently come into notice as speakers, and who being in favour of extreme measures, were much listened to and applauded.

(2) In his book Personal Recollections of Manchester, the author, Archibald Prentice described the Blanket Meeting at St. Peter's Field on 10th March, 1817.

Then came the 'Blanket Meeting' in St. Peter's Fields, Manchester, from which thousands of men were to march to London with their petition, each carrying a blanket or rug strapped to the shoulder. A considerable detachment of the King's Dragoon Guards rode rapidly up to the hustings, which they surrounded, taking those who were upon them, twenty-nine in number, amongst whom were Bagguley and Drummond, into custody.

When the field was cleared, a large body of soldiers and constables were despatched after those who had proceeded on the roads towards London. They came up with them on Lancashire Hill, near Stockport. Some hundreds were taken into custody, several received sabre wounds, and one industrious cottager, resident on the spot, was shot dead by the pistol of a dragoon, at whom a stone was thrown from the area where, with others, the poor man stood.