GEORGE SEWALL BOUTWELL. 3 1 



Groton sent a company of volunteers for the day numbering 

 about seventy-five men, under command of Captain William 

 Shattuck, then a sturdy Democrat and afterwards an equally 

 sturdy Republican. Shattuck was the grandson of Captain 

 Job Shattuck, of Shays' Rebellion. Job Shattuck had been a 

 captain in the War of the Revolution, and he was always an 

 earnest patriot. He was also a man of wealth, having large 

 possessions in land, and being wholly exempt from the 

 pecuniary distresses that harassed the majority of men, from 

 the close of the war to the close of the century. Job Shat- 

 tuck's action was due to his sympathy for the sufferers and to 

 his sense of justice. In every town there were traders and 

 small capitalists who had supplied the families of soldiers 

 who were absent in the service. 



Either by mortgage or by executions, the creditors had 

 secured liens upon the homesteads of the soldiers and from 

 1783 to 1789 the liens were enforced. Petitions went up to 

 the General Court for a stay act. James Bowdoin was 

 Governor. The General Court did not listen to the appeal. 

 Daniel Shays and others organized forces for the suppression 

 of the Courts. Shattuck was the leader in the county of 

 Middlesex, and at the head of his force he broke up the 

 Court at Concord. Finally he was arrested. Major Woods, 

 who had been an officer in the war, was in command of the 

 Government forces. Shattuck was secreted at the house of 

 one Gregg, who lived near where the house of John Gilson 

 now stands.^ The season was winter. It was believed that 

 Gregg betrayed Shattuck. When Shattuck discovered his 

 peril, he fled and made his way towards the Nashua River, 

 which was then frozen. His pursuers followed, but at unequal 

 pace. When he had crossed the river, he saw that the three 

 men in sight were widely separated from each other. Shattuck 

 turned, and for a time he became the pursuer. The first man 

 ran, then the second, but finally Shattuck fell on the ice, with 



1 [There is a slight inaccuracy in this account of Shattuck's capture which I 

 will try to correct. He is supposed to have passed the night at the house of 

 Samuel Gragg, who lived where Daniel Shattuck lived when Mr. Butler's Map 

 of the town was made in 1828, near the site of the District School-house 

 No. V. on Common Street. S. A. G.] 



