 Massachusetts issued a call to the United Colonies for concerted action against them, and would ultimately take the hardest line against them, hanging four of them for repeated violations of banishment.The matter of the Quakers came before Plymouth's general court shortly after Prence took office in 1657, and in June that year it passed a series of laws designed to punish or drive them out.Since they refused to swear oaths, one law called for a £5 fine or whipping for anyone refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the King.