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

518 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1TS7.
the jail door could not be found. Every possible hidingplace
was thoroughly searched, except the bed occupied by
the captain and his wife. Enraged at their discomfiture,
the mob then dragged Capt. Cook from his bed and
took him out of doors into the snow, dressed only in his
night-clothes, but they could not wrest from him the secret
hiding-place of the key. From this exposure he must have
suffered greatly, for he died the following year. His wife,
undaunted by the threats of the insurgents, refused to
leave her warm couch, and the rioters were too gallant to
offer her any indignity. To this may be added another
version, also handed down in the Cook family. While the
men were punishing the captain with a cold bath, Mrs.
Cook dressed herself and, slipping the key into one of the
long pockets which housewives wore tied about their
waists, she put her dress over it. With the key thus safely
concealed, she followed the searchers as they proceeded
about the house, mocking and jeering and laughing at
them. At last one of them opened a very small drawer
only to be met by these words from this courageous
woman : " Fools did you expect to find the key in that little
drawer, the key is thus long," measuring the length on
her arm to the elbow. Still another version of the story is
that the key was hidden in the trundle-bed in which one
of the children had been sleeping, but which the rioters did
not see fit to disturb. At any rate the key was not found,
and the prisoners remained in jail. This key is now preserved
at the jail and house of correction on Union Street.
The Rebels before Having put dowu the rebellion, measures
the Courts. Were taken to bring to trial its leaders and
instigators. Special sessions of the Supreme
Judicial Court were held in Berkshire, Hampshire, and
Middlesex Counties. A law was passed excluding from the
jury-box all who had been guilty of favoring the rebellion
in any way. At the same time three commissioners were
appointed who were empowered to grant indemnity to all
who took the oath of allegiance, and gave satisfactory evidence
of future good behavior. The leaders, Shays, Day,
Parsons and Wheeler, were excluded from the benefits of
this law, as well as those who had killed any citizen, and