biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1747–1825)
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| biography:
| US soldier and insurrectionary, probably born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. His origins were humble and little is known of his early life. He fought at Bunker Hill (1775) and at Saratoga (1777), then resigned from the army (1780) and settled in Pelham, MA where he held several town offices. He led the insurrection in W Massachusetts (1786–7) that grew out of a severe economic depression. Armed groups threatened courts charged with the collection of debts, and in January 1787 he directed an assault on the Springfield Arsenal. Militia forces repulsed his band and pursued it to Petersham, where the remnants were captured, and he fled to Vermont. Massachusetts authorities condemned him to death for being a leader of the rebellion that bears his name. He received a pardon in 1788 and migrated to W New York, where he passed the remainder of his years in obscurity. |
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