Peter Rhodes was chosen as the first burgess; George Rhoads as the town clerk; John F. Rhue as the High Constable, and a town council was established as the first civic legislature. Peter Rhodes was a prominent citizen and shopkeeper who served on the Committee for Public Safety in Northampton during the Revolutionary War. The first business of the borough government was to order cows to seek other pastures other than the public streets, an action which led many of its citizens to believe they were better off when it was plain Northampton Town, before it became a borough.