April 15, 1778

Whereas there is now confined in the goals in the Counties of Hampshire & Berkshire, sundry persons who were taken with our enemies & in arms against the United American States; and it being of great importance to these states that such parricides should receive adequate punishment: Therefore

Resolved that the Attorney General of this State be and he hereby is directed at the next Superior Court of Judicature &c, to be holden at Northampton within & for the Counties of Hampshire & Berkshire, to bring forward process for High Treason against all such persons, inhabitants of this State, as have been taken in arms with the enemies of these United States, and are now confined in the goals in the Counties of Hampshire & Berkshire. And the Justices of said Court are hereby directed to hear and determine thereon agreeable to the Act of this State against Treason &c.1

Printed as Chapter 945 [1777–1778] in The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1777–1778 (Boston, 1918), 357.

1.

The General Court ordered RTP to prosecute under the Act against Treason and Misprison of Treason, passed Feb. 1, 1777. The act charged that anyone residing in or passing through the state fell under the protection of its laws and thus owed allegiance to the state. Whoever should “levy war, or conspire to levy war” or give aid or comfort to enemies of Massachusetts would be “deemed and adjudged guilty of treason against this state, and shall suffer the pains of death, without benefit of clergy” (The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay [Boston, 1886], Chapter 32 in Province Laws [1776–1777], 5:615–620).