He is generally said to have been born at Hopkinton, Massachussets, Unied States, where Patrick Shay married Margaret Dempsey in 1744, although the birth records for that town do not contain his name. Most accounts give the year of his birth as 1747.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, Shays responded to the alarm at Lexington and served for eleven days. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill and was cited and promoted for gallant conduct. He also served at Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and Stony Point, and on January 1, 1777, was commissioned captain in the 5th Massachusetts.
In 1780 he resigned from the army, settling in Pelham, Massachussets, where in 1781 and 1782 he served as a member of the Committee of Safety. The wide-spread demand for redress of grievances, met by the obstinate non-compliance of the legislature, resulted in western Massachusetts in a resort to force, and in this phase of the movement Shays became so prominent that his name is given to the whole uprising - "Shays's Rebellion" - although others were as active as he.
On August 29, 1786, the insurgents prevented the sitting of the court of common pleas and general sessions, intending merely to prevent their giving judgments in debt cases before grievances were redressed; but the leaders soon began to fear that indictments would be brought against them, and they therefore determined to prevent the sitting of the supreme court at Springfield on September 26.
On the day appointed, 800 militia faced about the same number of insurgents, and Shays made his first historical appearance as leader. An agreement was reached by which both militia and insurgents disbanded, and the court adjourned. Outbreaks continued, by January 1787 the insurgents had given up hope of peaceful reform. Shays, as the leader of a force of insurgents at Wilbraham, and Luke Day, head of another band near by, intended to make a combined attack on the arsenal at Springfield, but owing to a failure of communication, Shays's force attacked alone. It was defeated by the militia under Shepard and dispersed. Shays, with what was left of his band, at once retreated to Amherst, where he was joined by stragglers from the other party.
Shays fled to Vermont, and was one of the few exempted from the general pardon given later in the year. He was condemned to death by the supreme court, but in February 1788 petitioned for pardon, which was granted June 13. Some time afterward, Shays moved to Schoharie County, New York, where he lived for a number of years, then moved on to western New York, settling in Sparta, where he died.
Daniel Shays fought in the Battle of Lexington and the Battle of Saratoga Shays and was presented with the rank of captain and an ornamental sword by General Lafayette, in honor of his military service. He was one of the leaders of Shays' Rebellion, called against controversial debt collection and tax policies. He established regional regimental organizations that were run by democratically elected committees, but he lost the rebellion.
He was convinced that in the rebellion of 1786-87 he was fighting the same battle of the people which he had fought in the Revolution.
He was very popular with his men, having the reputation of being considerate of his subordinates and at the same time a brave and efficient officer. He was a man of no cultural background, little education, and not much ability, but he was brave and honest.
In 1772, he married Abigail Gilbert, with whom he settled in Brookfield, Massachusetts. Daniel and Abigail (Gilbert) Shays had 6 children: Daniel born 31 January 1773 in Shutesbury, Massachusetts and possibly Lucy, Hannah, Susan, Gilbert and Polly.
