Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
To the Good People of the Town of
Gentlemen At a Meeting of a Considerable Number of Towns in the County of Hampshire, Assembled at Said Williamsburgh by their Delegates–and being Desirous of a more General Meeting of the good People of this County, Disire you to meet by your Delegate or Delegates at the 253 House of the Widow Lucy Hubbarts in Hatfield on Wednesday the 19th of March Instant,1 to Consider the Grievances Subsisting among the People Which may come under Consideration – in particular, Whether the good People think best to pay the State Taxes or any part of them which are now unsettled; and Whether Sundry acts passed by the General Court of this State viz: the Act intitled an Act of OutLawry, And that of Suspending the Habeas Corpus Act be not Repugnant to the Constitution, and Dangerous to the our Rights and Liberties
Thirteen towns were represented at the meeting in Hatfield on Mar. 19–20, 1783. The town representatives voted to not pay state taxes and adjourned until Apr., when another meeting would be held in Hadley (Daniel White Wells and Reuben Field Wells, A History of Hatfield, Massachusetts [Springfield, 1910], 200). At a later meeting in Goshen on Oct. 2, the town voted not to pay any “Continental, State or County taxes until Congress rescind their vote, allowing five years pay to the officers of the Continental army,” but the town history states that “What the effect of that vote was upon Congress we are not informed, but the town continued to pay its share of the public taxes” (Hiram Barrus, History of the Town of Goshen, Hampshire County, Massachusetts [Boston, 1881], 21).
Christopher Banister (1737–1805) of Goshen served in the Massachusetts militia and the Continental Army, rising to the rank of second major; he became a selectman for Hampshire County in 1782 (Mass. Soldiers and Sailors of the Rev. War, 1:575, 581; Barrus, History of the Town of Goshen, 21).