Manuscript

Decree Closing the Court of Common Pleas, Springfield, 1786

Date:

1786

About this artifact

The quarterly circuit Court of Common Pleas was in Springfield, Massachusetts,on December 26, 1786. That morning, a large number of armed Regulators assembled and requested in writing that all court business remain "As tho, no Such Court had been Appointed." This document signed by Sheriff Eleazor Porter affirmed that, "in Consideration of the Opposition," the Justices would not "open the said Courts as to any Business therein at this Term."