a biography of the day-mary dyer (quaker martyr)
Mary Dyer sided with Anne Hutchinson in the Antinomian controversy in 1630s Massachusetts, for which Dyer and her husband, William Dyer, were banished with Hutchinson. The Dyers then settled in Providence, Rhode Island.
In the 1650s the Dyers accompanied Roger Williams and John Clarke to England, where Mary Dyer became a Quaker, influenced by George Fox. Returning to Boston, she was arrested and expelled under a new law outlawing Quakers. (Her husband, who had not become a Quaker, was not arrested.)
Mary Dyer was arrested a year later for preaching Quakerism in New Haven. she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers held in the jail, and was arrested there. Banished, she returned with other Quakers to defy the law, and was arrested. Two of her comrades were hanged, but she received a last-minute reprieve.
She returned to Rhode Island, then traveled to Long Island, but finally in 1660 returned to Massachusetts to again defy the anti-Quaker law. This time, her sentence was carried out the day after her conviction, and on June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged for being a Quaker in Massachusetts.
Dyer is now honored with a statue at The State House in Boston.
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/religion/p/p_mary_dyer.htm
Mary Barrett Dyer
Born Mary (Marie) Barrett
c. 1611[1]
Died June 1, 1660
Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Cause of death Hanging
Nationality English
Known for Religious martydom
Religion Quaker
Spouse(s) William Dyer (Dier, Dyre)
Mary Barrett Dyer (c. 1611[1] — June 1, 1660) was an English Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony (now in present-day Massachusetts), for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony.[2] She is one of the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs.
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In late 1634 or early 1635, the Dyers emigrated to Massachusetts, where William Dyer took the Oath of a Freeman at the General Court in Boston on March 3, 1635 (or 1636). The couple was admitted to the Boston Church on December 13, 1635.[3]
In 1637, the Dyers became open supporters of Anne Hutchinson,[8] who preached that God "spoke directly to individuals" rather than only through the clergy. Dyer joined Hutchinson and the Rev. John Wheelwright during the "antinomian heresy" period,[9] in which they worked to organize groups of women and men to study the Bible in contravention of the theocratic law of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mary also followed Hutchinson to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
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In 1638, the Dyers were banished from the colony, and followed Hutchinson to Rhode Island. On the advice of Roger Williams, the group moved to Portsmouth, where William Dyer signed the Portsmouth Compact in March 1638 along with 18 other men.[11] The Dyers ultimately settled in Newport, where by 1640, William had acquired 87 acres of land. He flourished in Rhode Island, serving as Secretary for the towns of Portsmouth and Newport from 1640 to 1647, General Recorder, and ultimately Attorney General from 1650 to 1653.[12]
However, Mary was dissatisfied with Rhode Island life, and traveled alone to England in 1650, where she joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) after hearing the preaching of its founder George Fox. She eventually became a Quaker preacher in her own right.
William Dyer briefly joined her but returned alone to Rhode Island in 1652; Mary Dyer remained in England another five years. Mary's 1657 return to New England was ill-timed; John Endicott had succeeded Winthrop as Governor in 1649, and was far more intolerant of religious dissention.[13] When Mary's ship landed in Boston, she was immediately arrested. Her husband secured her release nearly three months later, on account of his prominent social status in Rhode Island, on the condition that William "give his honor" that Mary never return to Massachusetts.
Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 and expelled from New Haven, Connecticut for preaching "inner light," and the notion that women and men stood on equal ground in church worship and organization. After her release, she illegally returned to Massachusetts to visit two imprisoned English Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson. When she traveled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, she was arrested and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but Dyer was spared at the last minute because her son interceded on her behalf against her wishes.[14]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dyer
