Mary Dyer (born Marie Barrett ; c 1611 - June 1, 1660) was an English and colonial American Puritan who changed the Quaker hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, for recurring against the Puritan law that forbade the Quakers from the colony. He is one of four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs.
While his birthplace is unknown, he married in London in 1633 to the milliner William Dyer. Mary and William are Puritans who are interested in reforming the Anglican Church from within, without separating it. When the British king increased the pressure on the Puritans, they left England in the thousands to go to New England in the early 1630s. Mary and William arrived in Boston in 1635, joining the Boston Church in December of that year. Like most members of the Boston church, they soon became involved in the Antinomian Controversy, a theological crisis that lasted from 1636 to 1638. Mary and William were strong supporters of Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright in controversy, and as a result, Mary's husband lost her right. and disarmed for supporting these "heretics" and also to hide his own perverse views. Subsequently, they left Massachusetts with many others to set up a new colony at Aquidneck Island (then Rhode Island) in Narraganset Bay.
Before leaving Boston, Mary gave birth to a seriously born birth defect. Because of the theological implications of such births, the baby is buried secretly. When the Massachusetts authorities learned of this birth, the ordeal became public, and in the minds of the ministers and the judges of the colony, the dreadful birth was clearly the result of Mary's "monstrous" religious opinions. More than a decade later, at the end of 1651, Mary Dyer boarded a ship for England, and lived there for more than five years, becoming a faithful follower of Quakers that had been founded by George Fox several years before. Since the Quakers were considered one of the most bitter heretics by the Puritans, Massachusetts passed several laws against them. When Dyer returned to Boston from England, he was soon imprisoned and then disposed of. Against his eviction order, he was again banished, this time because of the pain of death. Deciding that he would die a martyr if anti-Quaker law was not revoked, Dyer once again returned to Boston and sent to a gallows in 1659, had a rope around his neck when a reprieve was announced. Not receiving a reprieve, he returned back to Boston the following year and was later hanged to become the third of four Quaker martyrs.
Video Mary Dyer
Kehidupan awal
The details of Mary Dyer's life in England are still scarce; just a marriage record and a short will testament to her found sister. In both of these English recordings, his name is given as Marie Barret. A tradition that Dyer is the daughter of Lady Arbella Stuart and Sir William Seymour, has been refuted by the genealog G. Andrews Moriarty in 1950. However, Moriarty correctly predicted that although his work the legend would survive, and in 1994 the tradition was put as plausible in published biography of Dyer.
While Mary Dyer's parents have not been identified, Johan Winsser made significant discoveries about Dyer's brother, which he published in 2004. On January 18, 1633/4, the administration of probate judges was recorded at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury for the flat William Hat. The instrument gave Barret's land administration "jointly to William Dyer of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the fishmonger, and his wife, Marie Dyer, otherwise Barret." The fact that Mary Dyer's brother's estate will be left in the hands of Mary and her husband strongly suggests that William (and therefore Mary) have no living parent and no brother living at the time, and also show that Mary is the One- the only sister of William Barrett, or her eldest sister. Another fact that can be drawn from the instrument is that William Barrett is unmarried and that he died somewhere "out of the sea" from England.
That Mary is well educated is visible from the letters she wrote. Quaker chronicler George Bishop describes it as "The Tomb Tomb Woman, and a Good Person, and one Good Report, has a husband from a Plantation, a fear of God, and a Mother of Children." The Dutch writer Gerard Croese writes that he is famous as "a man without extracts and meaningful descent, from a considerable treasure, of beautiful stature and face, of piercing knowledge in many ways, from a sweet and pleasantly beautiful discourse, for big business... "The Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop described him as" a very righteous and fair woman... with a very proud spirit, and much addicted to revelation ".
Mary married William Dyer, fishmonger and miller, on October 27, 1633 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish, who was at Westminster, Middlesex, but now part of London. Mary's husband was baptized in Lincolnshire, England. The settlers of Lincolnshire accounted for a very large percentage of members of the Boston Church in New England, and most of the leaders were disproportionate during the founding of Rhode Island.
Mary and William Dyer were Puritans, as evidenced by their acceptance into the membership of the Boston church in New England. Puritans want to complete the separation of the Anglican church from Catholicism which begins under the rule of the English king Henry VIII. The conformist in England accepted the English king as head of the church, and a form of worship very similar to that of the Catholic church. The Puritans, as nonconformists, want to remove the cloak, bend and make the sign of the cross that is common in Anglican worship, and observe simpler and biblical forms of worship. Some non-conformists, such as the Pilgrim, wanted to separate completely from the Anglican church, while the Puritans wanted to reform the church from within. As the Puritans began to swell in Britain, so did the severity of government intervention, including exile or death for ministers who did not follow state religious practices. In the 1620s, King Charles I of England, with little understanding of religion, insisted that the subject of English conforms to the same uniform religion, which includes the cloak and procedure found in the Catholic church. When the exploration of the North American continent then led to the settlement, the Puritans found a way to practice their religious form by emigrating from England.
Maps Mary Dyer
Massachusetts
In 1635, Mary and William Dyer sailed from England to New England. Maria is likely to conceive or give birth during the voyage because on December 20, 1635, their son Samuel was baptized in the Boston church, exactly one week after Dyers joined the church. William Dyer became a free man in Boston on March 3 of the following year.
Antinomian Controversy
During the early days of the Boston Church, before the arrival of Mary and William Dyer, there was a single minister, Reverend John Wilson. In 1633, one of Britain's most famous Puritan priests, John Cotton, arrived in Boston, and quickly became second minister (called "teacher") in the Boston church. Later, the Boston parish can sense the theological differences between Wilson and Cotton. Anne Hutchinson, a theological and theological midwife who has the ears of many female colonists, became outspoken in favor of Cotton, and condemned the theology of Wilson and most of the other ministers in the colony during meetings, or monasteries, held at his home.
Religious dissent in the colony eventually became a public debate and erupted into what is traditionally called the Antinomy Controversy. Many members of the Boston church found Wilson's emphasis on morality, and the doctrine of "justifying justification by sanctification" (a treaty of work) becomes unpleasant. Hutchinson told his followers that Wilson did not have "the seal of the Spirit." Wilson's theological view corresponds with all other ministers in the colony except Cotton, which emphasizes "the inevitable will of God" (the grace agreement). The Boston parish has become accustomed to the doctrine of Cotton, and some of them begin to disturb Wilson's preaching, even looking for reasons to leave when Wilson wakes up to preach or pray.
Both William and Mary Dyer sided strongly with Hutchinson and freedom-free supporters, and it is quite possible that Mary attended a periodic theological meeting at Hutchinson's home. In May 1636, the people of Boston accepted a new ally when Pastor John Wheelwright arrived from England, and immediately adapted himself to Cotton, Hutchinson, and other freedom-free supporters. Yet another impetus for those who advocate grace-free theology came during the same month, when the young nobleman Henry Vane was elected governor of the colony. Vane is a strong supporter of Hutchinson, but also has his own orthodox ideas about radical theology.
By the end of 1636, the theological divide had become so severe that the General Court called for a day of fasting to help alleviate the difficulties of the colony. The designated fast day, in January, included a church service, and Cotton preached in the morning, but with Wilson going to England, John Wheelwright was invited to preach during the afternoon. Although his sermon may seem friendly to the average audience in the congregation, most of the colonists find Wheelwright's words unacceptable. Instead of bringing peace, the sermon fanned the flames of controversy, and in Winthrop's words, Wheelwright "opposed all that goes in the covenant works,... and called them the antichrist, and moved the people against them with much bitterness and zeal." Instead, the Hutchinson followers were encouraged by the sermon, and intensified their crusade against the "legalists" among the scholars. During church services and lectures, they openly questioned pastors about their doctrines that disagreed with their own beliefs.
When the General Court met on March 9, Wheelwright was called to answer his sermon. He is judged guilty of "humiliation & ampiation" for "deliberately setting himself up to light up and raise" the bitterness inside the colony. However, the vote did not pass without a fight, and Wheelwright's friends protested formally. Most members of the Boston church, who supported Wheelwright in the conflict, compiled a petition justifying Wheelwright's sermon, and 60 people signed this protest by protesting against the belief. William Dyer was among those who signed the petition that accused the General Court of condemning the truth of Christ. Dyer's signature in support of Wheelwright soon proved to be a fate for the Dyer family.
Anne Hutchinson faced trial in early November 1637 to "trade" (defame) the ministers, and was sentenced for expulsion on the second day in court. Within a week of his sentence, many of his supporters, including William Dyer, were summoned to justice and disqualified. Fearing an armed rebellion, the policemen were then sent home-to-house across colonies to disarm them signing the Wheelwright petition. Within ten days, these men were ordered to give "all weapons, pistols, swords, powders, gunshots, & matches because they would be the owners, or in their custody, to the pain of ten pounds [s] for each default ". A large number of those who signed the petition, faced with the loss of their protection and in some cases livelihoods, were recalled under pressure, and "admitted their mistakes" in signing the petition. Those who refuse to confess suffer hardship and many decide to leave the colony. Because both are deprived of their rights and disarmed, William Dyer is among those who can no longer live in Massachusetts.
Horrible birth
While William Dyer appeared in Boston records on several occasions, Mary Dyer did not attract the attention of Massachusetts authorities until March 1638 as the Antinomian Controversy ended. After Hutchinson's civil trial, he was kept as a prisoner in the home of a brother of one of the ministers of the colony. Although he has been expelled from the colony, this does not mean he was dismissed as a member of the Boston church. In March 1638 he was forced to face the church's trial to gain the root of his heresy, and determine whether his relationship with the Puritan church would continue. While William Dyer was likely with others finding a new home away from Massachusetts, Mary Dyer was still in Boston and was present at the church's hearing. At the end of the trial, Hutchinson was ostracized, and when he left the Boston Church, Mary stood and walked hand in hand with her out of the building. When the two women left the church, a member of the congregation asked others about the identity of the woman who left the church with Hutchinson. The answer was made that it was a woman who had a terrible birth. The governor of Winthrop immediately realized this verbal exchange and began an investigation.
Dyer had given birth five months earlier, on October 11, 1637, to a deformed stillbirth. Winthrop writes that while many women gather for the occasion, that "there is nothing left at birth but midwives and two others, where one person is asleep." Actually, the two women present were midwives - Anne Hutchinson and Jane Hawkins, but the third woman was never identified. Hutchinson fully understood the serious theological implications of such a birth, and immediately sought the counsel of Pastor John Cotton. Thinking about how he would react if this was his son, Cotton instructed Hutchinson to hide the state of birth. The baby was then buried in secret.
As soon as Winthrop found out about the horrible birth, he faced Jane Hawkins, and with new information, he confronted Cotton. When news spreads among the leaders of the colony, it was determined that the baby would be excavated and examined. According to Winthrop, a group of "over a hundred people" including Winthrop, Cotton, Wilson, and Reverend Thomas Weld "went to the cemetery & were commanded to dig it until [see it], & they saw it, the most terrifying creature, fish, birds, & animals woven together... "In his journal, Winthrop gives a more complete description as follows:
it is an ordinary bigness; it has a face, but no head, and ears stand on the shoulders and like apes; it has no forehead, but above the eyes of four horns, hard and sharp; two of which are above an inch long, the other two shorter; eyes standing, and mouth as well; the nose is connected to the top; all breasts and back full of sharp pricks and scales, such as thornback [ie, skate or ray], navel and all stomach, with sex difference, is where the back should be, and the previous back and hips, where the stomach should be; behind, between the shoulders, there are two mouths, and each of them a piece of red meat sticking out; it has arms and legs like other children; but, instead of toes, it is on every three foot claws, like a young bird, with sharp claws.
While some descriptions may be accurate, many puritan ornaments are added to fit the moral story described by the authorities. The modern medical condition that best fits the baby's picture is anencephaly, which means no partial or complete brain absence. This episode is just the beginning of attention that comes from Dyer's personal tragedy. The religion of the Puritans demands a closer look at all aspects of one's life for signs of God's approval or disapproval. Even being a member of the Puritan church in New England requires the recognition of the public faith, and any behavior which the ulama see as unorthodox requires a theological examination by the church, followed by public recognition and repentance by the perpetrator. Such microscopic inspections even cause personal problems to be seen openly for teaching purposes, and Dyer's tragedy is widely examined for the signs of God's judgment. This leads to a very subjective form of justice, for example 1656 hanging Ann Hibbins whose offense is only hated by his neighbors. In Winthrop's eyes, Dyer's case was firm, and he was convinced that his terrible birth was a clear sign of God's displeasure with antinomian heresies. Winthrop feels that it's well-founded that the horrific birth discovery occurred just when Anne Hutchinson was ostracized from the believer's local body, and exactly one week before Dyer's husband was questioned in the Boston church for her perverted views.
To further foster Winthrop's belief, Anne Hutchinson suffered a miscarriage later in the year when he aborted a large number of strange tissues that looked like a handful of transparent grapes (a rare condition, mostly in women over 45 years, called mol hidatidosa). Winthrop is convinced of the divine influence in these events, and ensures that every New England leader accepts his own account of the birth of a "monster", and he even sends a deposition to England. Soon, the story takes its own life, and in 1642 it was printed in London under the title Newes New-England of the Most Bizarre and Productive Birth, brought to Boston in New England... Although the author of this work is unnamed , it was probably the New England Thomas Weld pastor who was in Britain at that time to support New England's ecclesiastical independence. In 1644 Weld, still in England, took Winthrop's account of the Antinomian Controversy, and published it under a single title, and then added his own introduction and reissued it under the title Brief Story of the Resurrection, Government and ruin of Antinomians, Familists & amp; Libertines... usually only called Short Stories . In 1648 Samuel Rutherford, a Scottish Presbyterian, included Winthrop's account of the monster in his anti-sectarian treatise. A Spirituall Antichrist Survey, Unlocking the Secrets of Familism and Antinomianism . Even the English writer Samuel Danforth put his birth in 1648 Almanack as an "unforgettable event" since 1637. The only priest who wrote without sensationalism about the disabled baby Dyer was Pastor John Wheelwright, Anne Hutchinson allies during the Antinomy Controversy. In his response in 1645 Winthrop's Short Story, entitled Mercuryus Americanus, he wrote that the Dyer and Hutchinson monster described by Winthrop is nothing but a "terrible concept of his brain [Winthrop ], the false problem of his intellect. "
Twenty years after the tragic birth, when Mary Dyer returned to the public spotlight for her Quaker evangelism, she kept in mind for the birth of her handicapped child, this time in John Hull's diary. Also, in 1660, a mail exchange took place between England and New England when two prominent British clerics, Richard Baxter and Thomas Brooks, sought information about the horrific birth of 1637. A New Briton, whose identity was excluded, sent back information about the event to the British priests. The New Englander, who uses Winthrop's original description of "monsters" almost word for word, has been identified as one of the famous priests, John Eliot who preached in a church in Roxbury, not far from Boston.
The most embarrassing count of Dyer's baby occurred in 1667 when a British memorandum Sir Joseph Williamson quoted a Major Scott about the incident. Scott is a state lawyer with a well-known reputation, and his critics include the famous diarist Samuel Pepys. Scott's strange assertion was that the young Massachusetts governor, Henry Vane, became the father of the dreadful births of Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson; that he "underestimates both, and both are sent monsters." After this, the account became less frequent, and the last historical report from Dyer's dreadful birth was in 1702 when New England minister Cotton Mather mentioned it as he passed on his Magnalia Christi Americana.
Rhode Island
Some of those affected by the events of the Antinomian Controversy went north with John Wheelwright in November 1637 to discover the city of Exeter that would become New Hampshire. A larger group, not knowing where to go, contacted Roger Williams, who suggested they buy land from natives along Narraganset Bay, near his settlement in Providence. On March 7, 1638, just as Anne Hutchinson's trial was under way, a group of people gathered at William Coddington's home and drafted a compact for a new government. This group includes some of Hutchinson's strongest supporters who have been deprived of his rights, disarmed, ostracized, or thrown away, including William Dyer. In all, 23 people signed instruments intended to form "Bodie Politick" based on Christian principles, and Coddington was elected group leader. After going through with the purchase of the proposed land of Roger Williams, these exiles set up their colony on Aquidneck Island (later named Rhode Island), naming the Pocasset settlement.
William and Mary Dyer joined William and Anne Hutchinson and many others in building new settlements on Aquidneck Island. However, within a year of the founding of this settlement, there were disputes among the leaders, and Dyers joined Coddington, with several other residents, moving to the southern tip of the island, establishing the city of Newport. The Hutchins remained in Pocasset, whose inhabitants named him in the town of Portsmouth, and William Hutchinson was the chief judge. William Dyer soon became Newport's recording secretary, and he and three others were commissioned in June 1639 for the proportion of new land. In 1640 two towns of Portsmouth and Newport were united, and Coddington was elected governor, while Dyer was elected secretary, and held this position from 1640 to 1647. Roger Williams, who envisioned the union of all four settlements in Narragansett Bay (Providence, Warwick, Portsmouth, and Newport), wanted a royal recognition of these settlements for their protection, and went to England where he obtained a patent carrying four cities under one government. Coddington opposed Williams's patents and successfully resisted union with Providence and Warwick until 1647 when representatives of the four cities finally met and united under the patent. With the four Narragansett settlements now under one government, William Dyer was elected General Recorder for the entire colony in 1648.
Coddington continued to be unhappy with the consolidated government, and wanted colonial independence for the two island towns. He sailed to England to present his case, and in April 1651, the British Council of State gave him the commission he sought, making him the governor of the island's life. Critics of Coddington appear as soon as he comes back with his commission. Three men were then directed to go to Britain for the Coddington commission to be revoked: Roger Williams, representing mainland cities, and John Clarke and William Dyer representing two island towns. In November 1651, the three men left for England, where Dyer would meet his wife. Mary Dyer had sailed to England before the three men left, as Coddington wrote in a letter to Winthrop. Dyer "sent his wife to the first ship with Mr. Travice, and now goes alone to England." It remains a mystery why Mary Dyer will leave six children behind, one baby, to travel abroad. Biographer Ruth Plimpton suggests that Mary has a royal relationship, and suggests that the news of King Charles's execution force him away. However, no record has succeeded in explaining this mystery satisfactorily.
Due to recent hostilities between Britain and the Netherlands, three people, once in Britain, did not meet with the State Council in New England until April 1652. After people explained their case, the Coddington commission for the island government was repealed in October 1652. William Dyer was the messenger who returned to Rhode Island the following February, bringing news of the return of the colony to the Williams Patent of 1643. Mary, however, will remain in England for the next four years.
Quaker conversions
English
Mary Dyer's time in England lasted for more than five years, and during her stay she has become deeply attracted by the Quaker religion founded by George Fox around 1647. Formally known as the Society of Friends, the Quakers do not believe in baptism, formal prayer and banquets God, too, does not believe in ordained ministry. Each member is a minister in his own right, women are essentially treated as men in terms of spirituality, and they rely on the "Inner Light of Christ" as a source of their spiritual inspiration. In addition to criticizing the scholars, and refusing to support it by their tithe, they also claimed the freedom of conscience as an inalienable right and demanded the separation of church and state. Their worship consists of silent meditation, though those who are moved by the Spirit will sometimes make public urges. They minimize the habit of bowing or people taking off their hats, they will not take an oath, and they will not fight. The Puritans in Massachusetts regarded Quakers as one of the most ignoble heretics, and they enacted several laws against them.
While in England, one place Dyer visited, and probably spent a lot of time, was Swarthmoor Hall, located near Ulverston in Cumbria in northwest England. Biographer Ruth Plimpton suspects that Dyer has spent time with his old friend Henry Vane in his hometown of Lincolnshire, called Belleau, and that Vane has introduced Maria to judge Thomas Fell who traveled extensively throughout the kingdom, and who owns Swarthmoor manor. In 1652 George Fox had visited Swarthmoor when the judge was traveling, but was invited as a guest house by the judge's wife, Margaret Fell. Within days, Fox had shaken Margaret with her religious beliefs. When the judge returned to Swarthmoor, he also listened to Fox, and although he was not taken by Fox's religious views, he remained tolerant and sympathetic to Fox, and allowed him to use Swarthmoor as a Quaker meeting place.
Plimpton recounts that Dyer traveled a few days from Lincolnshire to Cumbria, and stayed at Swarthmoor as a guest of Fells. This is where Dyer almost certainly meets George Fox, and learns about his beliefs and the role of women as a preacher in his faith. Although documentary evidence from actual meetings of Dyer and Fox is lacking, it is certain that Dyer is known to Margaret Fell, based on a letter written to Margaret by two Quakers at Barbadoes. The two men, John Rous and Henry Fell (unrelated to Thomas and Margaret Fell) wrote on May 24, 1657 that "We are still waiting here for a trip to New England.We have heard nothing from Anne Burden and Mary Dyer, who go there... "
Judge Thomas Fell died in 1658, but Swarthmoor continues to be the center of Quaker activity where George Fox will visit on many occasions. Margaret Fell was imprisoned for her Quaker activism from 1664 to 1668, and after her release, she married George Fox.
Quakers in Massachusetts
Of all the New England colonies, Massachusetts was the most active in persecuting Quakers, but the Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven colonies also shared in their persecution. When the first Quakers arrived in Boston in 1656, there was no law applicable to them, but this quickly changed, and the punishment was imposed with or without law. Especially the ministers and judges who opposed Quakers and their evangelistic efforts. A very violent persecutor, Pastor John Norton of the Boston church, is shouting for the law of expulsion for the pain of death. He was the one who later wrote justification to England, justifying the execution of the first two Quakers in 1659.
The punishment that was distributed to Quakers increased because of the threat they felt against the puritan religious order. These include stocks and scolds, lashes with whips, thorns, whips, fines, mutilations (cutting ears), expulsions and deaths. When flogged, women are stripped to the waist, so it is open to the public, and whipped until it bleeds. That's the fate of Dyer's Newport neighbor, Herodias Gardiner, who has traveled dangerously through a 60-mile desert to get to Weymouth in the Massachusetts colony. She has made a difficult journey with other women and with her "Babe sucking her breasts" to give Quaker testimony to her friends in Weymouth. Similarly, Katherine Marbury Scott, wife of Richard Scott, and sister of Anne Hutchinson, have received ten lashes to petition for the future release of the imprisoned son-in-law, Christopher Holder. This is the setting in which Mary Dyer stepped in, returning from England.
Dyer's Return to New England
In early 1657, Dyer returned to New England with the widow of Ann Burden, who came to Boston to complete the estate of his late husband. Dyer was soon recognized as a Quaker and imprisoned. Dyer's husband had to come to Boston to free him from prison, and he was bound and sworn to not let him stay in any Massachusetts town, or talk to anyone while crossing the colony to go home. Dyer continued his journey in New England to deliver his Quaker message, and in early 1658 was captured at the New Haven Colony, and was later expelled for preaching his "inner light" beliefs, and the notion that women and men stood on the same ground in worship and church organization. In addition to sharing his Quaker message, he came to New Haven with two others to visit Humphrey Norton who had been imprisoned for three weeks. The Anti-Quaker law was enforced there, and after Dyer was arrested, he was "ridden by a horse", and was forced to leave.
After his trip to New Haven, Mary recovered from a pneumonia attack when in June 1658 two Quaker activists, Christopher Holder and John Copeland came to Boston. They have been evicted from other parts of the colony, and annoyed the judges. Joining John Rous of Barbadoes, the three men were sentenced to beheaded, and the punishment took place in July. As Plimpton's biographer wrote, the men were "so strong when their ears were removed" that an additional punishment in the form of lashes was done for the next nine weeks. This word of cruelty reached Dyer when he visited Richard and Katherine Scott in Providence. Richard and Katherine Scott are considered the first Quakers in Providence. The Scotts has two older girls, Mary, who is engaged to Christopher Holder, and Patience, who is younger, is 11. Mrs. Scott and her two daughters, along with Mary Dyer and her friend Hope Clifton, are all forced to go to Boston to visit with Holder and others in prison. The four women and children were all imprisoned. Three others who also came to visit Holder and then imprisoned were Nicholas Davis of Plymouth, London merchant William Robinson and a Yorkshire farmer named Marmaduke Stephenson, the last two in Quaker missions from England.
The Quaker situation became very problematic for the judges. Their response to the increased presence of these people was to enforce more stringent laws, and on October 19, 1658, a new law was passed in the Massachusetts colony which introduced the death penalty. Quakers will be thrown out of the colony for pain due to death, which means they will be hanged if they break the law. Dyer, Davis, Robinson, and Stephenson were then taken to court, and later sentenced to "sentenced to pardon of death" under the new law. Davis returned to Plymouth, Dyer returned to Newport, but Robinson and Stephenson remained at the Massachusetts Gulf Colony, spending time at Salem.
In June 1659 Robinson and Stephenson were once again arrested and taken back to Boston prison. When Dyer heard about this arrest, he once again left his home in Newport, and returned to Boston to support his Quaker brothers, ignored his eviction order, and was once again imprisoned. Her husband had come to Boston two years earlier to get it from the authorities, sign the oath that he would not return. He would not return to Boston again, but on August 30, 1659 he sat down to write a long and fiery letter to the judges, questioning the legality of action taken by the Massachusetts authorities.
On October 19, Dyer, Robinson, and Stephenson were brought before Governor Endicott, where they explained their mission to God. The next day, the same group was brought before the governor, who directed the prison guard to remove the man's hat. He then spoke to the group, "We have made many laws and tried in some way to keep you from among us, but not whipping or imprisoning, or cutting off ears, or expelling the pain of death will deter you from us.. "After fulfilling his duty to present the position of the colony's authority, he then said," Hear now with your death sentence. " William Robinson then wanted to read the prepared statement about being summoned by God to Boston, but the governor did not allow him to read, and Robinson was sent back to prison. Marmaduke Stephenson, who was less vigorous than Robinson, was allowed to speak, and although initially declined, he finally spoke his mind, and then was also sent back to prison.
When Dyer was taken out, the governor announced his sentence, "Mary Dyer, you will go from there to where you came from and from where to execution, and hang until you die." He replied, "The will of God is done." When Endicott ordered the marshall to take him away, he said, "Yes, and gladly I left."
First Quaker execution
The date set for the execution of three Quaker evangelists William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer, was October 27, 1659. Captain James Oliver of the Boston military company was directed to provide armed forces to escort the prisoners to the place. execution. Dyer walked hand in hand with the two men, and between them. When he was openly asked about this inappropriate affinity, he responded instead of this event: "This is the hour of greatest joy I can enjoy in this world. No eye can see, no ears can hear, no speaking tongues, no heart can understand the sweet revenues and refreshments of the spirit of God I now enjoy. "The prisoners tried to speak to the assembled crowd as they proceeded to the gallows, but their voices were drowned by the constant drum beats.
The place of execution is not Boston Common, as many authors have expressed over the years, but instead about a mile south of there in Boston Neck, near the current intersection on West Dedham Street and Washington Street. Boston Neck on a narrow spit of land provides the only land access to the Shawmut Peninsula where Boston is located. Over time, the water on both sides of the isthmus is filled, so that the narrow neck no longer exists. The possible reason for the confusion may be that the land immediately south of Boston Neck is not privately owned and is considered "common ground", which led some authors to misinterpret this as Boston Common.
The poles are nothing more than large elm trees. Here the prisoners will climb the ladder with one end of the rope around their neck and the other end secured to the tree, and the ladder is then pulled away. William Robinson was the first of three to climb the ladder, and when he positioned he made a statement to the crowd, then died when the ladder was removed. Marmaduke Stephenson is the next to hang, and then turn Dyer after he witnesses the execution of his two friends. Dyer's hands and feet were tied and his face was covered with a handkerchief given by Reverend John Wilson who had been one of his pastors at the Boston church many years before. He stood quietly on the stairs, preparing for his death, but as he waited, a reprieve order was announced. Petition from his son, William, has given the ruler a reason to avoid execution. It was a prearranged scheme, in an attempt to confuse and block Dyer from his mission. This is made clear from the words of reprieve, although Dyer's hope is to die as a martyr.
The day after Dyer was pulled from the gallows he wrote to the General Court, refusing to accept the terms of reprieve. In this letter he writes, "My life is not accepted, nor does it benefit me, compared to the life and freedom of the Truth and the Servant of the living God who is in the Shackles of Love and Softness I seek you, but still with evil The hands have made both of you Death, which makes me feel that the Mercy of the Wicked is atrocity, I prefer to complain to Dye than to live, like you, guilty of their innocent Blood. "
The courage of the martyrs elicits popular sentiments against the authorities who now feel the need to justify their actions. The words of this petition indicate that Mary Dyer's reprieve should soften the martyrdom reality of both men. The Massachusetts General Court sent this document to a newly restored king in England, and in response, Quaker historian Edward Burrough wrote a short book in 1661. In this book, Burrough refuted Massachusetts's claim, point by point, provided a list of atrocities committed against Quaker, and also provides a narrative of the three Quaker executions that had taken place prior to the publication of the book.
After returning to Rhode Island, Dyer spends most of the next winter on Shelter Island, sitting between the north and south of Long Island fork. Though sheltered from the storm, the island's owner, Nathaniel Sylvester, used it as a refuge for the Quakers who sought refuge from the Puritans, thus giving his name. Here Dyer can communicate with his fellow Quakers, including his neighbor Newport, William Coddington and his wife Anne Brinley, who recently converted. Dyer uses his time here to think of the justification prepared by the Puritan authorities for sending to Britain, about their actions against Quaker. This document is an affront to Dyer, and he sees it only as a means to soften public anger. He was determined to return to Boston to force the authorities to change their laws or hang a woman, and he left Shelter Island in April 1660 focusing on this mission.
Dyer Martyrdom
Dyer returned to Boston on May 21, 1660 and ten days later he was again brought before the governor. The exchange of words between Dyer and Governor Endicott was recorded as follows:
Endicott: Are you the same Mary Dyer who was here before?
Dyer: I am the same Mary Dyer who is here, the last General Court.
Endicott: You will have yourself a Quaker, right?
Dyer: I have myself to be denounced as the name implies.
Endicott: Sentences are forwarded to you at the last General Court; and now - you have to go back to prison, and stay there till tomorrow at nine o'clock; then from there you must go to the gallows and hang up to death.
Dyer: It's nothing more than what you said before.
Endicott: But now it must be executed. Therefore prepare yourself to-tomorrow at nine o'clock.
Dyer: I have come in obedience to the will of God, the last General Court, which requires you to abolish the false laws about the expulsion of pain from death; and that is my job now, and the earnest wishes, though I tell you that if you refuse to retire, God will send others from his servants to witness them.
After this exchange, the governor asked if he was a prophetess, and he replied that he was saying the words that God had said to him. When he started talking again, the governor called, "Go with him! Go with him!" He was sent back to jail. Although her husband had written a letter to Endicott to ask for his wife's freedom, another postponement was not granted.
Execution
On June 1, 1660, at nine o'clock in the morning, Mary Dyer once again left the prison and escorted to the gallows. Once he was on the ladder under the elm tree he was given a chance to save his life. The answer is, "No, I can not; for in obedience to the will of the Lord God, I come, and in his will I remain faithful unto death." The military commander, Captain John Webb, read allegations against him and said he was "guilty of his own blood." Dyer's response is:
No, I came to keep the secrecy of your blood, wanting you to uproot the law of unjust and unjust evictions for the suffering of death, committed against the innocent servants of the Lord, therefore my blood will be needed in your hands who willfully do it; but for those who do so in the simplicity of their hearts, I do want God to forgive them. I came to do the will of my Father, and in obedience to His will I stood even to death.
Pastor Pastor John Wilson urged him to repent and not to be "so deceived and carried away by the devil." For this he replied, "No, boy, I'm not now to repent." Asked if he would ask the elders to pray for him, he replied, "I know no Elder here." Other brief exchanges followed, and later, in the words of his biographer, Horatio Rogers, "he swung, and the crown of martyrdom down on his head."
Cemetery
Note Friends of Portsmouth, Rhode Island contains the following entry: "Mary Dyer's wife William Dyer from Newport in Rhode Island: she was executed in the City of Boston with you like a cruel hand like martyrs at Queen Mary's time, and there buried on you 31 days you are 3d mo 1660. "In the calendar used at the time, May is the third month of the year, but the date in the record is not true every day, because the actual date of death is June 1st. Also, this entry states that Mary was buried in Boston where she was hanged, and Rogers's biographer echoes this, but this is impossible. Johan Winsser presents evidence that Mary is buried in the Dyer family farm, located north of Newport where the Navy base is now located in today's Middletown town. The strongest evidence found is the 1839 journal entry given by Daniel Wheeler, who wrote, "Before reaching Providence [coming from Newport], the site of residence, and Mary Dyer bury was shown to me." Winsser provides other evidence that lends credence to this idea; it is unlikely that Dyer's remains were left in Boston because he has a husband, many children, and friends who live in Newport, Rhode Island.
Aftermath
In his book History of Boston , Dr. Caleb Snow wrote that one of the officers attending the hanging-out show, Edward Wanton, was so overrun with the execution that he became a Quaker who converted. The Wantons later became one of the leading Quaker families in Rhode Island, and two sons of Wanton, William and John, and two grandchildren, Gideon and Joseph Wanton, became governors of the Rhode Island Colony.
Humphrey Atherton, an important Massachusetts official and one of Dyer's persecutors, wrote, "Mary Dyer does hang as a flag for others to sample." Atherton died on September 16, 1661 after falling from a horse, and many Quakers saw this as the wrath of God that was sent to him because of his severity against their sect.
The harsh reaction of a contemporary woman and friend of Mary Dyer came from Anne Brinley Coddington, with whom Dyer spent her last winter on Shelter Island. Anne Coddington sent a scathing letter to Massachusetts magistrates, choosing the role of Governor Endicott in execution. In addition, her husband, William Coddington sent several letters to the Connecticut governor, John Winthrop, Jr., condemning the execution.
While the news of Dyer's punishment quickly spread through the American and British colonies, there was no immediate response from London because of the political turmoil, which resulted in the reign of the king in power in 1660. Another Quaker was martyred at the hands of the Puritans, William Leddra of Barbadoes, who was hanged in March 1661. A few months later, British Quaker activist Edward Burrough managed to get an appointment with the king. In a document dated September 9, 1661 and addressed to Endicott and all other governors of New England, the king ordered that the execution and imprisonment of the Quakers be suspended, and that any offending Quakers were sent to England to be tried under existing English law.
While the royal response ends the execution, the Puritans continue to look for ways to harass Quakers coming to Massachusetts. In 1661 they passed "Cart and Tail Law", after Quaker was tied to a cart, stripped to the waist, and dragged through the cities behind the train, whipped on the way, until they were taken out of the colony. At around that time Endicott died in 1665, the royal commission directed that all legal action taken against Quaker would cease. However, lashes and imprisonment continued into the 1670s, after which popular sentiment, coupled with royal directions, finally ended Quaker's persecution.
Modern look
According to the literary scholar Anne Myles, Mary Dyer's life "serves as a powerful and almost allegorical example of a woman returning, again and again, to an equally powerful power and discursive control site." The only available first-hand evidence for Dyer's thoughts and motives lay in the letters he wrote. But Myles sees her behavior as "a very easy-to-read text about women's agencies, affiliations, and dissent." Seeing Burrough's story of a conversation between Dyer and Governor Endicott, Myles views the two most important dimensions as an agent and affiliate. The first is that Dyer's actions "can be read as staging public drama of the agency," a means for women, including female prophets, to act under the power and will of God. While Quaker ladies are allowed to preach, they are not being assertive when doing so because they are actually "preaching against their own will and mind."
Dyer has "strong intentionality" in dealing with judges and ministers, both in speech and in behavior. Although those who record their actions and lives, such as Burroughs and Rogers, view it as being obedient to the will of God, he remains an active participant in his destiny, voluntarily choosing to become a martyr. He is fully responsible for his actions, while appealing to the Puritan authorities to assume their moral responsibility for his death. It provides a distinguishing feature between Dyer and Anne Hutchinson, the latter of whom may not fully understand the consequences of his behavior. While Dyer's husband and unsympathetic men label him that he has "madness," it is clear from his letters and his words that his goals and intentions are displayed with complete clarity of thought.
During his dialogue, while walking to the gallows, or standing on the stairs under the hanging tree, Dyer trades a series of "yeas" and "nays" with his critics. With these affirmations and negations, he refuses to allow others to build on their meaning. He denies his image of a sinner in need of repentance, and opposes the authority of the church elders. Just as Hutchinson confuses his accuser during a civil trial, Dyer does not allow his interrogator to be sure of how they frame their meaning.
While the agency is the first of the two dimensions of Dyer's story, the second is loyalty. Dyer became famous in the public eye on the day Anne Hutchinson was ostracized, and Dyer took his hand when they came out of the meeting hall together. Dyer has a strong affiliation and loyalty to this older woman who shared the secret of her poor birth. Likewise, two decades later he framed his actions as a means to stand with his friends and share in their fate. In the first two letters Dyer has saved, he writes to the General Court, "If my Life is given free of charge to you, it will not give me any benefit, nor can I expect from you, as long as I have to be every day. or see the Suffering of These People, My Beloved Brother and the Seed, with whom My Life is bound, as I have done for these two years. " The traditional bond for women is couples and children, but in the Quaker community there is a strong spiritual bond that transcends gender boundaries. Thus the Puritan community felt so unusual that Dyer walked to the gallows in hand between two male friends, and he was asked if he was not ashamed of doing so. The spiritual proximity of these Quakers deeply threatens the Puritan mindset in which loyalty is controlled by male church members. The Quaker allows their personal ties to not only violate the gender line but also the age and class limits.
In his first letter to the General Court, Dyer used the agency theme and loyalty in creating an analogy between he witnessed in Massachusetts with the Old Testament of Esther. Esther, a Jew, was called to rescue her people after the evil Haman urged the king to enact the law for all Jews to be put to death. It was an intercession of Esther with the king who saved his people, and the parallel was that Dyer was a beautiful Esther, with an evil Haman representing the Massachusetts authorities, and the Jews in the Bible were the Dyer Quakers. Ultimately, Dyer's martyrdom has the desired effect. In contrast to the story of Anne Hutchinson, narrated more than a century by only his enemies, the orthodox Puritans, the story of Dyer becomes the story of the Quakers, and it is quickly shared in England, and finally goes before the King of England. , Charles II. The king ordered the termination of capital punishment, although severe treatment continued for several more years.
According to Myles, Dyer's life journey during his time in New England transformed him from "the object silenced to the subject of speech, from the Antinomian monster to a Quaker martyr". The evidence from a personal point of view and from the point of view of all Quakers shows that the end of Uncle is as much a spiritual victory as it is a tragic injustice.
Memorial and honor
The bronze statue of Dyer by Quaker sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson stands in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, and is featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail; a copy standing in front of the Friends Center in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the other in front of the Stout Meetinghouse at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.
In Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Mary Dyer and her friend, Anne Hutchinson, have been remembered at Founders Brook Park with Anne Hutchinson/Mary Dyer Memorial Herb Garden, a medal botanical garden, built by a beautiful waterfall with historical markers for early completion Portsmouth. The park was created by artist and herbalist Michael Steven Ford, who is a descendant of both women. The memorial is a grassroots effort by the local Newport organization, Anne Hutchinson Memorial Committee headed by Newport artist Valerie Debrule. The organization, called Friends of Anne Hutchinson, meets annually at the memorial in Portsmouth, the closest Sunday to July 20, the date of Anne's baptism, to celebrate her life and the local women's colonial history at Aquidneck Island.
Dyer was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1997 and entered the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
Works published
Three Mary Dyer adult biographies have been published, the first being Mary Dyer of Rhode Island, the Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged in Boston Common, June 1, 1660 by Horatio Rogers (1896) and the second
A play titled The Joy, by Jeanmarie Simpson, about Mary Dyer's life, published in 2016.
Children and offspring
Mary Dyer had eight known children, six of whom grew into adulthood. After his martyrdom, her husband remarried and had one more known child, and possibly another. His eldest son, William, was baptized at St Martin-in-the-Fields (London) on October 24, 1634 and was buried there three days later. After sailing to New England, his second son, Samuel, was baptized in the Boston church on December 20, 1635 and married 1663 Anne Hutchinson, daughter of Edward Hutchinson and granddaughter William and Anne Hutchinson. His third child is a premature baby who was born dead, born 17 October 1637, discussed earlier. Henry, born around 1640, was the fourth child, and he married Elizabeth Sanford, daughter of John Sanford, Jr., and grandson of Governor John Sanford.
The fifth child is the second William, born around 1642, who married Mary, probably the daughter of Richard Walker of Lynn, Massachusetts, but there is no evidence to support this. Boy number six is ​​male and is named Bibel Mahershallalhashbaz. She is married to Martha Pearce, the daughter of Richard Pearce. Mary is the seventh child, born about 1647, and married around 1675 Henry Ward; they lived in Cecil County, Maryland, in January 1679. Mary Dyer's youngest son was Charles, born around 1650, whose first wife was Mary; there is an unsupported claim that he is the daughter of John Lippett. Charles married second after 1690 Martha (Brownell) Wait, who survived from him.
There is no evidence that Mary's husband, William Dyer, ever became a Quaker. However, his two sons, Samuel and Mahershallalhashbaz, probably Quaker because they were asked to appear before the Court of Appeal in Portsmouth, Rhode Island to face charges of non-military duty. In general, Quaker refused to serve in the military, and the charges were eventually canceled. There are many litigations about William Dyer's heritage, Sr.; Her widow, Katherine, took his two widows to Samuel and then his son Charles to court over the land, probably feeling that more possessions belonged to his children with him.
Mary Dyer's famous descendants include Rhode Island Governor Elisha Dyer and Elisha Dyer, Jr., and US Senator from Rhode Island, Jonathan Chace.
See also
- Christian egalitarianism
- The Christian view of women
- List of early Rhode Island settlers
- Christopher Holder
- Jeanmarie Simpson
References
Bibliography
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments