 John Lees, a cotton operative, was one of the victims of the "Peterloo Massacre" of 1819, and the 'Oldham inquest' which followed was anxiously watched; the Court of King's Bench, however, decided that the proceedings were irregular, and the jury were discharged without giving a verdict.Annie Kenney, born in nearby Springhead, and who worked in Oldham's cotton mills, was a notable of the Suffragette movement credited with sparking off suffragette militancy when she heckled Winston Churchill, and later (with Emmeline Pankhurst) the first Suffragist to be imprisoned.Oldham Women's Suffrage Society was established in 1910 with Margery Lees as president and quickly joined the Manchester and District Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.