MARY DYER

Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana
Goose Creek Meetinghouse
Statue of Mary Dyer
Pictures from George Newkirk's collection.

When I came across this Picture of Mary Dyer I had little knowledge of her story. Learning more I see a woman was willing to forfeit her life in order to force change in a rigid, oppressive society. Mary Dyer was executed in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the Puritan authorities. At the time she was a practicing Quaker whose offense was refusing to withdraw from the Puritan colony. 

Information from Wikipedia - Antinomian Controversy - Mary Dyer

"On 1 June 1660, at nine in the morning, Mary Dyer once again departed the jail and was escorted to the gallows. Once she was on the ladder under the elm tree she was given the opportunity to save her life. Her response was, "Nay, I cannot; for in obedience to the will of the Lord God I came, and in his will I abide faithful to the death."

Ultimately, Dyer's martyrdom did have the desired effect. Unlike the story of Anne Hutchinson, that was narrated for more than a century by only her enemies, the orthodox Puritans, Dyer's story became the story of the Quakers, and it was quickly shared in England, and eventually made its way before the English King, Charles II. The king ordered an end to the capital punishments, though the severe treatment continued for several more years.

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According to Myles, Dyer's life journey during her time in New England transformed her from "a silenced object to a speaking subject; from an Antinomian monster to a Quaker martyr". The evidence from a personal standpoint and from the standpoint of all Quakers, suggests that Dyer's ending was as much a spiritual triumph as it was a tragic injustice.

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While news of Dyer's hanging was quick to spread through the American colonies and England, there was no immediate response from London because of the political turbulence, resulting in the restoration of the king to power in 1660. One more Quaker was martyred at the hands of the Puritans, William Leddra of the Barbadoes, who was hanged in March 1661. A few months later, however, the English Quaker activist Edward Burrough was able to get an appointment with the king. In a document dated 9 September 1661 and addressed to Endicott and all other governors in New England, the king directed that executions and imprisonments of Quakers cease, and that any offending Quaker be sent to England for trial under the existing English law."