The Famous Shay's Rebellion....

I have been doing quite a bit of researching. It seems as though one of ancestors was an active participant in the Shay's Rebellion. James Sloan is the one listed in the rolls of those from Townsend who marched with many others in the rebellion. This can be found in the book written by Ithmar Sawtelle, The History of The Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from the grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878.
In my researching my ancestral roots, I discovered some very interesting connections. There was a large family of Spauldings in Townsend..They bear no relationship to my mother's side of the family. They come from my father's side on his mother's side of the family. There also many Spauldings who also marched with the "Shayites" in rebellion with hundreds of other poor farmers in protest against taxes and foreclosures.
The Spauldings that my ancestral ties go back to eventually produced the men who went on to become governors in New Hampshire and donated the Spaulding Memorial School to Townsend.
So the James Sloan who took up with the Shay's Rebellion would be the father to Peter S. Sloan, Peter being father to the James Sloan who was the father to Elizabeth Sloan Stewart.
All of this is most interesting to me as my ancestors from both sides of my family knew each other for a long time before the bloodlines and DNA started to mix and mingle.