WE recently shared some timely extracts from the diary of Henry Bankes about the Peterloo massacre of August 16, 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of thousands who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

Jonathan Pullen, from Weymouth, has since got in touch, after the article and the forthcoming bicentenary of the tragedy sparked thoughts of his notorious ancestor, Reverend Charles Wicksted Ethelston (1767-1830).

Charles was the Mancunian magistrate who reputedly read the Riot Act to the vast number of protestors assembling in Peter's Field, awaiting a speech by Henry Hunt. The Riot Act had been established in 1714 and authorised local officials to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled and to disperse or face punitive action.

An alumnus of Manchester Grammar School, Charles was well known for his imposing presence, loud voice and uncompromising opinions. The artist George Cruikshank lampooned him as 'The Clerical Magistrate - Preachee and Floggy, too'.

He certainly sounds like a unpleasant character, but as Jonathan points out, the benefits of hindsight should not necessarily be exaggerated. On a happier note, Charles' son of the very same name, Charles Wicksted Ethelston (1798-1872), was the rector of Uplyme on the Dorset-Devon border, and married Anne Peel.

After Anne's death in 1854, Charles decided to erect a building in her memory to house the existing school, which to this day is still called Mrs Ethelston's Primarily. Sadly, Charles died a year before the building was officially opened.

Another family descendent of the family, Edith Ethelston, married Sir John Eldon Bankes of Soughton Hall, Flintshire, who was closely related to the Bankes family of Kingston Lacy. Jonathan himself remembers visiting the house as a boy, in the twilight years of Ralph Bankes' ownership, and being intrigued by the decaying state of the premises.

With thanks to Jonathan for this fascinating information.