The taxes for which complaint was made were for the years 1777 to 1780 inclusive, and amounted to about two hundred pounds. They were heaviest for the years 1779 and 1780. The assessors, then, on December 15, gave Richard Collins, constable of Dartmouth, a warrant for the arrest of the Cuffe brothers. It recites that their taxes were delinquent for 1778: 5 lbs. 17s. 6d. 1779: 9 lbs. 2s. 8d. 29 lbs. 16s. 10-1/2d. 29 lbs. 18s. 9d. 1780: 61 lbs. 18s. 4d. 17 lbs. 7s. 5/25d. ----- Grand total: 154 lbs. 1s. 1-7/10d. The assessors found no estate on which to levy for the taxes. In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, therefore, they required the "said Richard Collens to take into safe custody the body of the said John and Paul Cuffe and then commit to the common gaol of the said County of Bristol there to remain until they, the said John and Paul Cuffe shall pay and satisfy the above sum with all necessary charges" or be discharged by due process of law. The constable followed the instructions and reported on December 19 that he had placed the Cuffe brothers in the common gaol in Taunton. For this service, including travel for twenty-five "milds," he turned in a bill of twelve shillings, nine pence. The next step in the legal battle was on the part of the Cuffe brothers. The keeper of the gaol or his underkeeper was directed on the nineteenth of December in the "Name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to have the bodies of John and Paul Cuffe said to be Indian men whom you have now in keeping before the Justices of our Inferior Court of Common Pleas now holden at Taunton for said County together with the cause of their and each of their Commitiment and Detention. Hereof fail not and make Return of this writ with your doings therein. Witness Walter Spooner Esqr." Elijah Dean, underkeeper, produced the two men on the same day that he received the writ of habeas corpus. When the Court of General Sessions of the Peace met on the nineteenth of December it ordered on the petition of John and Paul Cuffe that the assessors of Dartmouth appear at the next term to show cause, wherefore the Prayer of said Petition should not be granted. The order was given to the sheriff of Bristol County on the twenty-ninth of December. The assessors, Benjamin Russell, Richard Kriby, Christopher Gifford, and John Smith were accordingly summoned by Elijah Dean. He served the warrant on the twenty-sixth of February and recorded his fee as twenty-four pence.