Home > Mary Dyer

Mary Barrett Dyer ( 1611? - June 1, 1660) was an English Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in North America.

Mary Dyer met Anne Hutchinson in 1637, who preached that God "spoke directly to individuals" rather than only through the clergy. Dyer joined with Hutchinson and became involved in the what was called the " Antinomian heresy," where they worked to organize groups of women and men to study the Bible in contravention of the theocratic law of the Massachusetts Bay ColonyThe Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called by the name Massachusetts Bay Company for the institution that founded it) was the direct predecessor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and then the state of Massachusetts. The colony was established under.

In 1638Events March 29 Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden April 15 Shogunate forces defeat the last rebels of Shimabara Rebellion in the fortress of Hara May 11 French admiral d'Estrees runs his whole fleet aground in Cur, Mary Dyer and her husband, William Dyer, were banished along with Hutchinson from the colony. The Dyers moved to ProvidenceProvidence is the capital and largest city in Rhode Island, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 173,618, but a July 1, 2002 Census estimate put the city's population at 175,901. It is located in Providenc in the colony of Rhode IslandAlternate uses: see RI (disambiguation The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (commonly known as Rhode Island is geographically the smallest state in the United States. Rhode Island (pronounced "Road Island") is part of the New England regio, which had been founded on the basis of religious freedom the previous year by Roger WilliamsRoger Williams (c. 1600 1684) was an Anglo- American theologian; he was a notable proponent of the separation of Church and State, and with John Clarke, a co-founder of Rhode Island. He was born probably in London about 1600 (the date is uncertain; Knowle who was also banished from Massachusetts for "heretical beliefs" in 1636Events February 24 King Christian of Denmark gives an order that all beggars that are able to work must be sent to Brinholmen Island to build ships or as galley rowers March 26 Utrecht University founded in The Netherlands. September 8 A vote of the Great.

Mary Dyer and her husband returned to England with Roger Williams and John Clarke in 1652Events April 6 Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck establishes a resupply camp for the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, and founded Cape Town. May 18 Rhode Island passes the first law in North America making slavery illegal. May 29 First Anglo, where Mary Dyer joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) after hearing the preaching of its founder George Fox and feeling that it was in agreement with the ideas that she and Hutchinson held years earlier. She eventually became a Quaker preacher in her own right.

The Dyers returned to Rhode Island in 1657. The next year she traveled to Boston to protest the new law banning Quakers, and she was arrested and expelled from the colony. (Her husband, who had not become a Quaker, was not arrested.)

Mary Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 in New Haven, Connecticut. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers who had been arrested, she was also arrested and then permanently banished from the colony. She traveled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, and was again arrested, and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but because her husband was a friend of Governor John Winthrop he secured a last-minute reprieve -- against her wishes, for she had refused to repent and disavow her Quaker faith.

She was forced to returned to Rhode Island, traveled to Long Island, New York to preach, but her conscience led her to return to Massachusetts in 1660 to defy the anti-Quaker law. Despite the pleas of her husband and family, she again refused to repent, and she was again convicted and sentenced to death on May 31. The next day Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for the crime of being a Quaker in Massachusetts.

Her last words were, "Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."

A statue of her is in front of the Massachusetts state capitol in Boston.