On February 3, 1783, up to a dozen men of Paxton and other towns in Worcester County instigated a riot when they attempted to liberate cattle that had been confiscated as tax payments. Ten of the men were arrested—Asa and Reuben Stearns, John Davis, David Peirce, Ebenezer Boyinton, Nathan and James Snow, Nathan and Jonathan Wheeler, and Abijah Bemiss—and indicted for disorderly conduct, prevention of tax collection, and rioting. The men appeared before the grand jury in April. They were found guilty when the case went to trial before the September session of the Supreme Judicial Court in Worcester.