Source: Reports of the Criminal Cases tried in the Municipal Court of the City of Boston before Peter Oxenbridge Thacher (Boston: 1845)

October Term, 1840
Commonwealth v. John Hunt, Patrick Hayes, Daniel O’Neal, Supplier Woods, Michael O’Connor, Edward Farrington, John Odiorne, and others unknown.

The indictment against the defendants contained five counts, the substance of which was, that the defendants, “being workmen in the art, mystery and manual occupation of bootmakers, unlawfully, perniciously, and deceitfully, designing and intending to continue, keep up, form and unite themselves into, an unlawful club, society, and combination, and make unlawful by-laws, rules, and orders among themselves, and thereby govern themselves and other workmen in said art; and unlawfully and unjustly to extort great sums of money by means thereof, did unlawfully assemble and meet together, that none of them should thereafter, and that none of them would, work for any master or person whatsoever, in the said art, mystery, or occupation, who should employ and workmen or journeymen, or other person in the said art, who was not a member of said club, society, or combination, after notice given him to discharge such workman from the employ of such master. "