Manuscript

Caleb Phillips' Receipt for Firearm

Date:	December 4, 1787
Creator:	Joseph Stebbins, Jr.

About this artifact

Caleb Phillips of Ashfield was one of thousands of men who came forward in the winter of 1787 to take an oath of allegiance to the state of Massachusetts. In exchange, he received a pardon for having taken up arms against the government. One of the conditions of the pardon required Phillips and other Regulators to surrender their guns for three years. With a new governor and legislature came a more lenient policy. As a consequence, Caleb Phillips signed this receipt for a gun returned to him in December, 1787, more than two and a half years ahead of the terms set in the original Disqualification Act of February, 1787.