Pennsylvania General Assembly | An act to quell the brutal riots of the Paxton Boys

Pennsylvania General Assembly

Anno Quarto. Georgii III. Regis. An Act for Preventing Tumults and Riotous Assemblies, and for the More Speedy and Effectual Punishing the Rioters. [Philadelphia: B. Franklin and David Hall, 3 February 1764]

Folio (325 x 205 mm). Folded as issued, untrimmed; four old horizontal folds, edges a little ragged, a few tiny holes along vertical fold. Housed in a custom folding-case.

Rare first printing of this Pennsylvania act to quell the Paxton Boys.

Amid increasing conflict between settlers of Pennsylvania's frontier towns and the nearby indigenous tribes, dozens of armed young men from Paxton raided an indigenous village and workhouse, brutally murdering twenty in December 1763, including women and children. In response, Governor John Penn urged the Assembly to pass an act to restrain the settlers termed the Paxton Boys, who were "intent on marching from Lancaster to Philadelphia and killing the Indians lodged for safety on Province Island" (Miller). The act was passed on 3 February 1764 and served as an extension of the 1715 British Riot Act, which allowed local authorities to demand that any unlawful or riotous gathering of 12 of more people be dispersed or punished. It was reprinted in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 9 February.

Extremely rare: ESTC locates just three copies held by institutions, and Rare Book Hub records the work only twice at auction in the last century.

REFERENCES

Miller 816; ESTC W7478; Evans 9782; Hildeburn 1949

PROVENANCE

Christie's, 19 May 2011, lot 154 (undesignated consignor)