The Paxton Boys

(click image to enlarge)

The 1763 uprising of the "Paxton Boys" was triggered by the Quaker government's perceived indifference to Indian attacks on the Pennsylvania frontier, and by the western district's underrepresentation in the colonial assembly.
The Paxton Boys were Scots-Irish Presbyterian farmers from the area near Paxton Church, Paxtang, who formed a vigilante group in response to the Indian uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys felt that the government of colonial Pennsylvania was negligent in providing them with protection, and so decided to take matters into their own hands.
As the nearest belligerent Indians were some 200 miles west of Paxton, the men turned their anger towards the local Conestoga (or Susquehannock) Indians—many of them Christians—who lived peacefully in small enclaves in the midst of white Pennsylvania settlements. (The Paxton Boys believed or claimed to believe that these Indians secretly provided aid and intelligence to the hostile Indians.) On December 14, 1763 a group of more than fifty Paxton Boys marched on an Indian village near Millersville, Pennsylvania, murdered the six Indians they found there, and burned the bloody cabin in which the killings were done. Later, colonists looking through the ashes of the cabin, found a bag containing the Conestoga's 1701 treaty signed by William Penn, which pledged that the colonists and the Indians "shall forever hereafter be as one Head & One Heart, & live in true Friendship & Amity as one People."
The remaining fourteen Susquehannocks were placed in protective custody by Governor John Penn in Lancaster. But on December 27, Paxton Boys broke into the workhouse at Lancaster and brutally killed and mutilated all fourteen. These two actions, which resulted in the deaths of all but two of the last of the Susquehannocks, are sometimes known as the "Conestoga Massacre." The Governor issued bounties for the arrest of the murderers, but no one came forward to identify them.

"The German Bleeds..," never the Quaker

political cartoon, circulated after the 1763 Conestoga massacre
(click image to enlarge)

"The German bleeds & bears ye Furs
Of Quaker Lords & Savage Airs

The Hibernian frets with new Disaster
And kicks to fling his broad brim'd Master

But help at hand Resolves to hold down
The Hibernian's head or tumble all down"
In 1760s backcountry Pennsylvania Scots-Irish and German settlers became increasingly convinced that Quaker leaders were encouraging and arming neighboring Indians to brutally attack their families in an effort to make them leave the colony altogether. In 1763 their resentment erupted into violence when the Scots-Irish "Paxton Boys" murdered six Indians at the Conestoga town near Lancaster, and afterward burned their cabins. Subsequent attacks followed in an attempt to wipe out their entire local tribe. The gang threatened to march eastward to Philadelphia killing all Indians in their path. In the image above, one of Pennsylvania's first political cartoons, an Indian and Quaker ride on the backs of German and Scots-Irish settlers as a house in the background is burning. A mother and child lie dead in the foreground. It is true that Quakers provided arms to some frontier Indians. More significantly, upon disembarking at the port of Philadelphia, German and Scots-Irish immigrants were maneuvered by the Quaker authorities into settling the western Pennsylvania frontier. Their presence there provided a strategic defense shield between the gentrified coast and hostile Indian nations, without having to compromise their personal Quaker pacifist principles. 

"The Quaker Unmask'd"

From The Quaker Unmask'd, or, Plain Truth, by David James Dove, Philadelphia: Andrew Steuart, 1764:

"Friend . . . It is true, we [Quakers] profess to have an Aversion to War: but . . . we secretly rejoice when we hear of whole Settlements murdered and destroyed. . . . And tho' our Malice at present is openly pointed only at the Presbyterians; yet to be plain with thee, we are as much in our Hearts against all who differ from us in Opinion . . . . thee knows it would be impolitic to discover our Resentment to too many Sects at once . . . ."

George Moffett (1735-1811)

From Historic Families of Kentucky, by Thomas Marshall Green, published 1889, R. Clarke, Kentucky, pp. 15-16:

Captain John McDowell and Magdalena Wood had three children—Samuel, James, and Sarah. The latter married George Moftett, probably a son of the Captain John Moffett, whose name appears among the Scotch-Irish emigrants who early settled in the "Manor" and in the "Grant." After the death of the father of George Moffett, the widow married John Trimble, grandfather of the distinguished Allen Trimble, Governor of Ohio. George Moffett bore a manly part in the French and Indian war, and in all the subsequent border warfare with the savage foe. His step-father, John Trimble, fell a victim in one of their murderous raids; several members of his family and many of the neighbors were captured and carried off. The large band of savage murderers were swiftly pursued by Captain George Moffett and his hardy company, overtaken at Kerr's creek, were attacked with vigor, and defeated with heavy loss; the despairing victims were released and returned to their friends. Among them was James Trimble, half brother of Captain Moffett, and father of Governor Allen Trimble.