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iy fastened on another world, cried out that she
desired to suffer with her brethren, unless the ma
gistrates would repeal their wicked law.
She was saved by the intercession of her son,
but on the express condition that she should be
carried to the place of execution, and stand upon
the gallows with a rope about her neck, and then
be carried out of the colony. She was accordingly
taken to Rhode Island ; buC her resolution was still
unshaken, and she was again moved to return to
the “ bloody town of Boston/’ where she arrived
in the spring of 1670. This determination of a
feeble and aged woman to brave all the terrors of
their laws, might well fill the magistrates with as
tonishment ; but the pride of consistency had al
ready involved them in acts of extreme cruelty, and
they thought it impossible now to recede. The
other executions were consideie l acts of stern ne
cessity, and caused much di. 4 content. A’ hope was
entertained until the last moment that the con
demtted would consent to depart out of the juris
diction ; and when Mary Dyer was sent for by the
court, after her second return, Governor Eudicott
said, “Are you the same Mary Dyer that was here
before ?” giving her an opportunity to escape by a
deuial of the fact, there having been another of the
name returned from England. But there was no
evasion.
“ 1 am the same Marv Dyer that was here the
last general court.”
“ You will own yourself a Quaker, will you not?”
14 1 own myself to be reproachfully so called;”
and she was sentenced to be hanged the next day.
“ This is no more than thou saidst before,” was
fcer intrepid reply, when the sentence of death was
pronounced.
“ But now,” said the governor, “ it is to be exe
cuted ; therefore prepare yourself, for to morrow at
nine o’clock yo die.”
“ I came,” was the reply, “ in obedience to the
will of God, the last general court, desiring you to
repeal your unrighteous law of banishment on pain
of death, and the same is. my work now, and earnest
request, although I told you if you refused to repeal
them the Lord would send others of his servants to
wimess againsl them.”
At the appointed time on the next day she was
brought forth, and with a band of soldiers led
through town, about a mile, to the place of execu
tion, the drums beating before and behind her the
whole way. When she was on the gallows it was
told her if she would return home she might come
down and save her life; to which she replied,—
“ Nav, I cannot, for in obedience to tiie will of the
Lord I came, and in obedience to his will I abide
faithful unto the death” Another said that she
had been there before ; she bad the sentence of
banishment upon pain of death, and had broken
the law in coming again now, and therefore she
was guilty of her owa blood. “Nay,” she an
swered, “ I came to keep blood guiltiness from you,
desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust
law of banishment upon pain of death, made
against the innocent servants of the Lord; there
fore my blood will be required at your hands, who
SOUTHERN BAPTIST MESSENGER.
I willfully do it; but for those who do it in the sim
plicity of thei:* hearts, Id* sire the Lord to forgive
them; I came to do the will of my Father, and in
obedience to his will I stand even till death.” A
minister who was present then sard, “ Mary Dyer,
repent, oh repent, and be not so deluded and car
ried away by the deceit of the devil.” But she un
answered, “ Nay, man, I am not now to repent.”
She added that she desired the prayers of all the
people of God. “Perhaps,” said one, scofiinglv, “she
thinks there is none here.” Then looking* round’,
she said, “ I know but few here.” Being again
asked to have one of the elders pray for her, she
said, “ Nay, first a child, then a young man, then
a strong man, before an Elder in Christ Jesus.”
She spoke of the other world, and of the eternal
happiness she was about to enter ;. and in this well
disposed condition was turned off, and died a mar
tyr of Christ, being twice led to death, which the
first time she expected with undaunted courage,
and now suffered with Christian fortitude. “She
hangs as a flag for others to take example by,” said
a member of the cc uit, as the lifeless bodv huncr
suspended from the gallows.
Instead of being a warning, her death was only
an encouragement. Another Quaker, named Wil
liam Leddra, soon made his appearance, and after
a tedious imprisonment, during which he was
chained to a log of wood, he was brought to trial
on the usual charge of returning from banishment.
There was a dash ol the ludicrous in the proceed
ings. One of the charges against him was that he
refused to take cfl’ his hat in court, and another
was that he persevered in saying “thee” and “thou.”
“ Will you put me to death,” said be “for speaking
good English, and for not putting oil my clothes?”
“ A man may speak treason in good English,” was
the reply 4i Is it treason to say ‘thee’ and ‘thou,’’
to single persons ?' ’ No rejoinder c<i!d here be
made by the judges, and while they were try ing to
stop his mouth with a few more questions, to their
exceeding dismay another Quaker, named Winlock
Ch ristison, who bad also returned fi#m banishment,
entered the court and placed himself beside the
prisoner. The case of Leddra was liist despatched
by condemning him to be executed, and this atro
city was committed on the 14th of March. Chisti
son at a second appearance before the court, re
ceived a like sentence, but leaving him the choice
of voluntary banishment, and this latter alternative
he appears to have embraced. The next culprits
of the same class were Judah Browne and Pieison,
who, for no offence that v?e can conceive, but that
of being Quakers, were condemned to be tied to a
cait’s tail, and whipped through several towns in
the colony. Immediately after, as appears from
the records of the court, a day cf thanksgiving was
appointed to be kept iu acknowledgment of the
many mercies -‘enjoyed for years past, in thfl re
mote wilderness.”
According to Mr. Chandler,* from whose inter -
esting work wo have derived these melancholy de
tails, the persecutions in Massachusetts gave offense
*A uerican Criminal Trials, by P. W. Chaudler. Two
vole.: 1810
to Charles 11., who had other reasons to be dissat
isfied with the colonists. He therefore enjoined all
the governors of New England to proceed no far
ther with corporal punishments against the Qua
kers, but to send them to England with their crimes
specifically set forth, in order that they might be
disposed of according to law.
The Quakers in London immediately chartered
a vessel, and the mandamus being committed to
Samuel Sliattock, who bad been banished from
Massschusetts on pain of death, he arrived in the
harbor of Boston in six weeks. The King’s mes
senger and the commander of the ship landed the’
day after their arrival, and proceeded directly to
the governor's house. Admitted to his presence,
he ordered Shattock’s hat to be removed, but after
perusing the letters, restored it, and took off his
own. After consultation with the deputy governor,
he informed the messenger that they would obey
the King’s command. In the evening the passen
gers of the ship came on shore, and, with their
hiends and brethren in the town, held a meeting
where they returned thanks, and prai-es to God
“ for his mercy, manifested in their wonderful de
liverance.”
The colonial laws against the Quakers were now 4
abolished, and there were no more executions of
this unhappy class of persons ; but the magistracy
were hostile to the for years afterwards
they contrived to whip and otherwise maltreat any
Quakers who fell into their hands; it would seem
doubtful whether the tortures and indignities they
occasionally inflicted, particularly on the persons*
of females, weie not_worse than death. The au
thority to which we have referred observes with*
justice that the Quakers who exposed themselves
to these severities were not by any means blame
less. Unlike the orderly society of Friends in the
present day, they appear to have taken a delight
in annoying the constituted authorities, and dis
turbing tbe public peace. Much of this,, however,
was produced by tLcir sufferings iu the first in
stance ;. and the more violent amongst them from,
a variety of causes, were evidently wrought up to
a state of religious insanity. Allowing that they,
were as troublesome as their worst enemies can
possibly represent them, there can now be but one
sentiment respecting their treatment —unqualified
condemnation of their oppressors. It is tiue (hero
were laws equally revere .against the Quakers in.
Virginia and elsewhere ; but this does not lessen,
the crime of the magistracy of Massachusetts. De
scendants of Pilgrim Fathers who fled to the wil
derness from persecution, if not themselves refugees,,
they ought to have sympathized in the eccentrici
ties or convictions of others, when placed in simi
lar circumstances. llow true is the remark of our
author,that “Religious intolerance was the mistake
of the age.”
——
Our ignorance and precipitancy lead us to attri--
bute effects to chance, which have a necessary and
detenniwate cause. When we say a thing happens
by chance, we really mean no more than that it*
cause is unknown to us, and nor, as some vaiuly
imagine, that chance itself can be the cause of any
thing. — Chambers .
