Absalom Watkin

Absalom Watkin (1787–1861), was an English social and political reformer, an anti corn law campaigner, and a member of Manchester's Little Circle that was key in passing the Reform Act 1832. 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. Fours years later, John sold the business and the new owner, Thomas Smith, retained Absalom as the factory manager. By 1807, he had raised enough money to buy Smith out of the business, on the back of which Absalom became rich.

Peterloo Massacre

Watkin, like other fellow members of the Little Circle, had been contributing occasional articles, some even regular columns, for Cowdroy's Manchester Gazette. This was a non-Tory non-conformist paper, but moderate in its views compared to the recently created Manchester Observer. 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. Seven were Unitarians, including five from the Cross Street Chapel: Thomas and Richard Potter; Abasolm Watkin; Mark Philips, John Shuttleworth, John Benjamin Smith, and brothers Edward and William Baxter (all cotton merchants); Fenton Atkinson (prominent Manchester attorney); William Harvey; John Edward Taylor.

The group supported various social reform issues closely but discreetly: Taylor survived a trial for libel; Shuttleworth organised the defence of plebeian reformers accused of administering an illegal oath.

Although successful in business and public affairs, Absalom remained dissatisfied with his own life, and unhappy in his marriage. In his diaries he admits that all he wanted to do was write, tend his garden and read alone in his library. Watkin resided at Rose Hill until his death on 16 December 1861. He was buried in the family grave in the churchyard of the St Wilfrid's, Northenden.