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Court verdicts of punishment for Shays' Insurgents published in the Hamsphire Gazette

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On April 22, 1787, the Supreme Judicial Court met in Northampton and convicted Henry McCullock, Jason Parmenter, Daniel Luddington, Alpheus Colton, James White and John Wheeler of high treason. They were sentenced to death, which would have been carried out by hanging. Other Regulators were sentenced to imprisonment, standing in the pillory and being whipped, or sitting on the gallows for one hour with a rope around their neck. They also had to pay fines and put up a bond of 100 to 300 pounds to insure that they would keep the peace and be on good behavior for a period of five years. Both the fines and bonds were large sums of money at a time when money was scarce. William Butler began publication of the Hampshire Gazette on September 6, 1786, in Northampton, Massachusetts, 18 days after the Regulators prevented the Court of Common Pleas from convening there. The newspaper often urged support of the government and was generally against the activities of the Regulators. The paper came out on Wednesdays and consisted primarily of articles reprinted from other newspapers.

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