Paxton Boys
![Paxton Mob march on Philadelphia, published 1764.](/Images/godic/202502/01/Paxton_Boys_march_on_Philadelphia5533.jpg")
![1841 lithograph of the Paxton Boys' massacre of the Indians at Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1763.](/Images/godic/202502/01/Paxton_massacre5533.jpg")
The Paxton Boys were frontiersmen of Scots-Irish origin from along the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania who formed a vigilante group to retaliate in 1763 against local American Indians in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion. They are widely known for murdering 21 Susquehannock in events collectively called the Conestoga Massacre.