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

1787.] SHAYS REBELLION. 519
against whom warrants were pending. The action of the
Supreme Court at its session in this town has ah'eady been
given.
The Rebels Seize About the 21'* of May, the rebels had the
Hostages. audacity to seize the persons of two respectable
citizens of Massachusetts, Mr. Joseph
Metcalf of Orange, and Dr. Medad Pomeroy of Warwick,
whom they carried to Vermont. Their avowed design was
to liold them as hostages for the lives of the prisoners, Parmenter
and McCullock. Both were allowed to escape in a
few days, very soon after the first reprieve of the prisoners
was made known.
No Rebels Executed. No One in this part of the state paid the
extreme penalty of the law for participation
in the Shays rebellion. Several of the leaders were
condemned to death, two or three were reprieved at the
foot of the gallows, but eventually all were pardoned.
The Commissioners The commissiou already mentioned, con-
^«®*- sisted of Benjamin Lincoln, Samuel Philips
Jr., President of the Senate, and Sam-
uel A. Otis, Speaker of the House. They advertised a session
to be held in Northampton, continuing ten days from
the 9"" of April. Those persons making application for
clemency were required briefly to state in writing the in-
stances of criminal conduct with which they were respect-
ively chargeable, what office they had sustained under the
government, if any, and the capacity in which they acted
in opposition to government, if they had been in arms.
All applications were to be accompanied by a certificate
subscribed by two or more persons of known attachment
to the government, and purporting that the applicants are
duly penitent for their crimes, and properly disposed to
return to their allegiance to the State, and to discharge the
duty of faithful citizens thereof. The justices of the
county were to convey to the commissioners at Northampton,
as soon as possible, a certificate of the persons to whom
they had administered the oath of allegiance, and the
towns to which they respectively belonged.