Essex Junto, a group of extreme New England Federalists, many of whom were aristocratic merchants from Essex County, Massachusetts. Its leaders included Timothy Pickering, George Cabot, and Theophilus Parsons. The Junto supported the Federalist faction of Alexander Hamilton and feared democracy and westward expansion. They denounced the Embargo of 1807 and, in their opposition to the War of 1812, advocated secession. The Junto lost its influence following the war's end.