History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

Opening Events.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SHAYS REBELLION.
On tliG last TuGsday ill the moiitli of August,
the Court of General Sessions of the Peace
assembled in this town, when it was met by a mob of armed
-rioters, fifteen hundred ^ in number, determined to prevent
it from transacting any business. The result of this demonstration
is best told in the language of the Clerk of the
Courts, who made the following entry upon the records :—
, " Hampshire ss. At the Court of Common Please holden
at Northampton, within and for the County of Hampshire
on the last Tuesday of August, Anno Dommini, 1786.
" Justices of the said Court present, viz.
Eleazar Porter, Esq.
John Bliss, Esq.
Samuel Mather, Esq.
'
' Early in the morning of this Day, there was collected a considerable
Number of Persons under Arms who paraded near the Court House,
with a professed Design to prevent this court from sitting ;
a commit-
tee from whom presented a Petition requesting the Court would not
proceed to do any Business ; the Court having considered thei*eof,
thought proper to open the same at the House of Capt. Sam'l Clark,
Innholder in Northampton, & having continued all matters pending in
said Court, to the term of this Court next to be holden at Springfield
in & for the County of Hampshire on the second Tuesday of November
next, adjourned without day.
Att. Robert Breck, Cler."
The Mob in Control. Armed, somc with muskets, some with
bludgeons, and some with swords, with
drums beating and fifes playing, the mob held possession
of the Court-House till midnight, when they quietly dispersed.
They are represented as having conducted them-
1 Minot's Insurrections, p. 37. The newspapers of the day report that four hundred
or five hundred men were present.
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