This case came to the Superiour Court after British prisoners of war incarcerated on an American prison ship in Boston Harbor rose up, rioted, and shot Sgt. Thomas Beckford, a guard on the ship. Duncan McGregor and eight other prisoners were taken to a civilian court on charges of murder. The prisoners petitioned the court, protesting that their trial should take place in a military rather than a civil court, but the case went to trial in the August 1780 session in Suffolk County. The nine defendants were found not guilty.