Endicott: "theire being sentenced to banishment on pajne of death, as vnderminers of this government. . ."

Mary Dyer and her husband William were originally inhabitants of Boston, and members of the church there, having emigrated from England to the Colony in the year 1635. Mrs. Dyer and her husband became early converts to the doctrines of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson.

Mary had obviously not escaped official notice for in New England Memorial, we find:  "This year there was a hideous monster born at Boston, in New England, of one Mrs. Mary Dyer, a copartner with the said Mrs. Hutchinson, in the aforesaid heresies; the said monster, as it was related to me, was without head, but horns like a beast, scales or a rough skin like the fish, called the thornback; it had legs and claws like a fowl, and in other respects as a woman child; the Lord declaring his detestation of their monstrous errors, as was then thought by some, by this prodigious birth."

When Mrs. Hutchinson was excommunicated, young Mrs. Dyer walked out of the church with her, and when Hutchinson was banished, she followed her to Rhode Island.  This was in 1637.

What became of her in the intervening years between her exodus to Rhode Island and her return in Quaker garb to Boson is not clear, but she was by now a middle-aged matron.

Her first attempt to return to Boston as a Quaker resulted in immediate imprisonment, and only by the steadfast entreaties of her husband was she released on the stipulation that she immediately be removed from the Colony, under guard, and being allowed to speak to no one during the journey. 

In September of 1659, Mary returned with William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson and Nicholas Davis,  knowing full well of her peril, but with equal intent "to look the bloody laws in the face."

The three were immediately apprehended by the authorities  imprisoned, tried and banished upon pain of death. At their first trial before Governor Endicott, he said, "we have made many laws and endeavored in several ways to keep you from among us, but neither whipping nor imprisonment, nor cutting off ears, nor banishment upon pain of death, will keep you from among us. We desire not your death."

Ignoring the edict the three were soon imprisoned once again and regarded as "rushing upon a fool's fate."  On October 20th the prisoners were brought before the Court of Magistrates with the "implacable" Endicott presiding. All three were condemned to be hanged.

In letters written shortly after their trial, some of their reasons are revealed. Stephenson stated his reason for staying as being that he felt called and sent by God to be in Boston, even if it meant his death. Dyer put her statement eloquently, saying "Was ever the like laws heard of among a people that profess Christ come in the flesh? . . .Of whom take ye counsel? Search with the light of Christ in you, and it will show you of whom, as it hath done with me and many more. . ."

Such words did not sway Endicott, however. The Boston General Court felt that Quaker doctrine assaulted the "fundamentall trueths" of religion. By denying the trinity, Christ, and the holy scriptures, Quakers belief in the "inner light" as the primary basis of revelation ran against the grain of Puritan dogma, with its scripturally based relationships of master/slave, king/subject, and father/family.

Thus Dyer, Stephenson, and Robinson, imprisoned, awaited their execution, "for theire rebelljon, sedition, & presumptuous obtruding themselves vpon us, notwithstanding theire being sentenced to banishment on pajne of death, as vnderminers of this government. . ."

Despite all entreaties of her family to recant, Mary apparently preferred death to dishonor, and would not. On October 27th, the high-sheriff exhibited his warrant, called for the prisoners by name, and had their irons knocked off. Surrounded by guards and a "great multitude," the three proceeded by foot hand-in-hand to the gallows.

Having arrived at the place of execution, by a circuitous route for fear of a rescue attempt, Mary and her fellows bid each other farewell. Robinson was the first to ascend the ladder and  with final words predicted visitation of divine wrath to come upon his slayers.  Stevenson's last words were these: "Be it known unto all this day, that we suffer not as evil-doers, but for conscience' sake."  Mary was next.   She was pinioned, blindfolded and the fatal noose placed around her neck. 

Suddenly a voice cries out.  "Stop! She is reprieved!  Sewall says, "Her feet being loosed, they bade her come down."  Conducted back to prison, where her son anxiously awaited her return, she learned that his entreaties had managed to save her.  Her sentence was commuted to banishment with the solemn warning that should she again offend the law the extreme penalty would surely be exacted.

But Mary, with the zeal of a martyr, once again choose to disobey and returned to the "bloody town of Boston," in May of 1660.

Endicott conducted her examination: 

"Are you the same Mary Dyer that was here before?"

"I am the same Mary Dyer that was here at the last General Court," she replied.

"Then you own yourself a quaker, do you not?" said the Governor.

"I own myself to be reproachfully called so."

"I must then repeat the sentence once before pronounced upon you," said Endicott.

Mary quietly rejoined: "That is no more than what thou saidst before."

"True," said Endicott sternly, "but now it is to be executed; therefore prepare yourself for nine o'clock to-morrow."

Mary's fate was now sealed, and it seems she desired it.

At the appointed hour the marshal came for her and without ceremony, yet heavily guarded,  conducted here to the fearsome spot--Boston Common where the scaffold had been erected.  A commanding officer, in an attempt to quiet of those in the crowd who expressed the hope that she might once again be saved, retorted that she was guilty of her own blood.

"Nay," she replied, "I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord."

Called upon to repent from the deceits of the Devil, Mary replied "Nay, man, I am not now to repent." 

Mary Dyer was then hanged by the neck until dead.