Mary Dyer
1611 - 1660
1611 - 1660
1611 - Mary Dyer was born.
1635 - William and Mary Dyer settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Mary took sides in the "antinomian" controversy led by Anne Hutchison.
1638 - When Hutchison was excommunicated, Dyer walked out with her.
Dyer gave birth to a deformed and miscarried baby. Colony leaders exhumed and examined the body and declared it to be God's judgement on her deformed spirituality.
1638 - The Dyers moved to Rhode Island where religious freedom was prized. The helped found Providence,
1650 - Mary Dyer sailed for England, where she became interested in the "Shakers".
1650 or 51 - William joined her returning the Rhode Island in 1653.
c1654 - Mary became a Quaker.
1657 - Mary returned to America, landing in Boston where Quakers had been outlawed. She was jailed for ten weeks.
New Haven expelled Mary who had gone to Connecticut to spread the new doctrines.
1658 - despite severe punishments meted out by the Puritans to Quakers, Mary returned to Boston to support friends. She was imprisoned.
1659 - Mary was arrested for a third time in Boston and sentenced to death. At the last minute, having been forced to watch the hanging of two Quakers, she was given a pre-planned reprieve. She was ordered to leave Massachusetts and never return.
She spent some months in Shelter Island (near Rhode Island) preaching to the colonists and Indians.
She returned again to Boston, was arrested for a fourth time and sentenced to death. She rejected the opportunity to renounce her faith, saying, "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".
1 June 1660 - Mary was hanged on Boston Common. Her last words were reported to be "Yea, I have been in Paradise these several days and now I am about to enter eternal happiness."
After Mary Dyer
The mistreatment of Quakers in the colonies was reported to King Charles who then forbad Massachusetts from executing any more. It is likely that Mary Dyer's case was one of those reported.