The Southwark Riots
PENNSYLVANIA FREEMAN
JULY 18, 1844
From the evidence taken by the Court of Common Please we are enabled to present a more accurate account of the principal features of the origin and progress of the late riots, than that which was given in the reports of the daily newspapers at the time.

http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/953.htm

PUBLIC LEDGER - PHILADELPHIA, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1844

http://www.aoh61.com/history/bible/southwark_riots.htm

George S. Roberts, affirmed-I reside 157 John street, Northern Liberties. On Sunday July 7, 1844, being informed that the lower districts of the town were disturbed, curiosity led me down to St. Philip de Neri; arrived about 8 A.M. I approached the place by Third street; large crowds at all the corners of the adjacent streets; those crowds somewhat remote from the building composed of decenter materials, but those near the church composed of the worst class of mankind, the very dregs of the canaille of a large city, a great number of boys.

__________________
____________

And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale

____________