Lt. Col. John Robinson - Shays' Rebellion

Shays' Rebellion

In 1786, Robinson took up arms against the Massachusetts Courts in the post-war farmer's revolt later known as Shays' Rebellion. Little is known of his actual role in the rebellion, his great-Granddaughter Olive Ann Prescott, describing his action as "an honest mistake" yet noting that he always had fought "with an innate hatred of injustice wherever found". It is known that he acted in concert with Job Shattuck of neighboring Groton, MA, a notable leader in the uprising who Robinson had commanded in Prescott's militia and at the Regimental camp at Cambridge. On September 12, the day on which the Middlesex County Court in Concord was forced to adjourn by an armed mob of Shaysites, "The number at 11 o’clock was about seventy, but increased in the afternoon to about two hundred and fifty, by the arrival of others from Worcester county; and from other towns in Middlesex, among whom Col. Robinson of Westford was conspicuous."