 Group member Archibald Prentice (later editor of the "Manchester Times") called them the "Little Circle"; other members were John Shuttleworth (industrialist and municipal reformer); Absalom Watkin (parliamentary reformer and anti corn law campaigner); and William Cowdroy Jnr (editor of the "Manchester Gazette").After group members witnessed the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, and the closure of the liberal "Manchester Observer" by successive police prosecutions, it decided the time was right to advance its liberalist agenda.In 1820, Brotherton, Shuttleworth and Thomas Potter founded the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.