They had already been evicted from other parts of the colony, and were exasperating the magistrates. Being joined by John Rous from Barbadoes, the three men were sentenced to having their right ears cut off, and the sentence was carried out in July. Richard and Katherine Scott were considered to be the first Quakers in Providence.
The Scotts had two daughters, Mary, the older, who was engaged to Christopher Holder, and Patience, the younger, aged Scott and her two daughters, along with Mary Dyer and her friend Hope Clifton, were all compelled to go to Boston to visit with Holder and the other men in jail. The four women and child were all imprisoned.
Three other people who had also come to visit Holder and were then imprisoned were Nicholas Davis from Plymouth, the London merchant William Robinson and a Yorkshire farmer named Marmaduke Stephenson , the latter two on a Quaker mission from England. The Quaker situation was becoming highly problematical for the magistrates. Their response to the increasing presence of these people was to enact tougher laws, and on 19 October , a new law was passed in the Massachusetts colony that introduced capital punishment. Quakers would be banished from the colony upon pain of death, meaning they would be hanged if they defied the law.
Dyer, Davis, Robinson, and Stephenson were then brought to court, and then sentenced to "banishment upon pain of death" under the new law. In June Robinson and Stephenson were once again apprehended and brought back to the Boston jail. Her husband had already come to Boston two years earlier to retrieve her from the authorities, signing an oath that she wouldn't return. He wouldn't come back to Boston again, but on 30 August he did sit down to write a long and impassioned letter to the magistrates, questioning the legality of the actions taken by the Massachusetts authorities.
He then addressed the group, "We have made many laws and endeavored in several ways to keep you from among us, but neither whipping nor imprisonment, nor cutting off ears, nor banishment upon pain of death will keep you from among us.
We desire not your death. Marmaduke Stephenson, being less vociferous than Robinson, was allowed to speak, and though initially declining, he ultimately spoke his mind, and then was also sent back to jail. When Dyer was brought forth, the governor pronounced her sentence, "Mary Dyer, you shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, and there be hanged till you be dead. Captain James Oliver of the Boston military company was directed to provide a force of armed soldiers to escort the prisoners to the place of execution.
Dyer walked hand-in-hand with the two men, and between them. When she was publicly asked about this inappropriate closeness, she responded instead to her sense of the event: No eye can see, no ear can hear, no tongue can speak, no heart can understand the sweet incomes and refreshings of the spirit of the Lord which now I enjoy. The place of execution was not the Boston Common , as expressed by many writers over the years, but instead about a mile south of there on Boston Neck, near the current intersection of West Dedham Street and Washington Street.
Boston Neck was at one time a narrow spit of land providing the only land access to the Shawmut Peninsula where Boston is located. Over time, the water on both sides of the isthmus was filled in, so that the narrow neck no longer exists. A possible reason for the confusion may be because the land immediately south of Boston Neck was not privately owned and considered "common lands", leading some writers to misinterpret this as being the Boston Common. The gallows consisted of nothing more than a large elm tree. Here the prisoners would step up a ladder with one end of a rope about their neck and the other end secured to the tree, and the ladder would then be pulled away.
William Robinson was the first of the three to mount the ladder, and when he was positioned he made a statement to the crowd, then died when the ladder was removed. Marmaduke Stephenson was the next to hang, and then it was Dyer's turn after she witnessed the execution of her two friends. Dyer's arms and legs were bound and her face was covered with a handkerchief provided by Reverend John Wilson who had been one of her pastors in the Boston church many years earlier.
A petition from her son, William, had given the authorities an excuse to avoid her execution.
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It had been a pre-arranged scheme, in an attempt to unnerve and dissuade Dyer from her mission. This was made clear from the wording of the reprieve, though Dyer's only expectation was to die as a martyr. The day after Dyer was pulled from the gallows she wrote a letter to the General Court, refusing to accept the provision of the reprieve. In this letter she wrote, "My life is not accepted, neither availeth me, in comparison with the lives and liberty of the Truth and Servants of the living God for which in the Bowels of Love and Meekness I sought you; yet nevertheless with wicked Hands have you put two of them to Death, which makes me to feel that the Mercies of the Wicked is cruelty; I rather chuse to Dye than to live, as from you, as Guilty of their Innocent Blood.
The courage of the martyrs led to a popular sentiment against the authorities who now felt it necessary to draft a vindication of their actions. The wording of this petition suggested that the reprieve of Mary Dyer should soften the reality of the martyrdom of the two men.
In this book, Burrough refuted the claims of Massachusetts, point by point, provided a list of the atrocities committed against Quakers, and also provided a narrative of the three Quaker executions that had transpired prior to the book's publication. After going home to Rhode Island, Dyer spent most of the following winter on Shelter Island , sitting between the north and south forks of Long Island.
Though sheltered from storms, the island's owner, Nathaniel Sylvester , used it as a refuge for Quakers seeking shelter from the Puritans, thus providing its name. This document was an affront to Dyer, and she viewed it as merely a means to soften public outrage.
Dyer returned to Boston on 21 May and ten days later she was once again brought before the governor. The exchange of words between Dyer and Governor Endicott was recorded as follows:. Sentence was passed upon you the last General Court; and now likewise--You must return to the prison, and there remain till to-morrow at nine o'clock; then thence you must go to the gallows and there be hanged till you are dead.
I came in obedience to the will of God the last General Court, desiring you to repeal your unrighteous laws of banishment on pain of death; and that same is my work now, and earnest request, although I told you that if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send others of his servants to witness against them. Following this exchange, the governor asked if she was a prophetess, and she answered that she spoke the words that the Lord spoke to her.
When she began to speak again, the governor called, "Away with her! Though her husband had written a letter to Endicott requesting his wife's freedom, another reprieve was not granted. On 1 June , 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. Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness 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, therefore my blood will be required at your hands who willfully do it; but for those that do is in the simplicity of their hearts, I do desire the Lord to forgive them.
I came to do the will of my Father, and in obedience to his will I stand even to the death. Her former pastor, John Wilson, urged her to repent and to not be "so deluded and carried away by the deceit of the devil. The Friends' records of Portsmouth, Rhode Island contain the following entry: Johan Winsser presents evidence that Mary was buried on the Dyer family farm, located north of Newport where the Navy base is now situated in the current town of Middletown. The strongest evidence found is the journal entry given by Daniel Wheeler, who wrote, "Before reaching Providence [coming from Newport], the site of the dwelling, and burying place of Mary Dyer was shown me.
In his History of Boston , Dr. Caleb Snow wrote that one of the officers attending the hanging, Edward Wanton, was so overcome by the execution that he became a Quaker convert. Humphrey Atherton , a prominent Massachusetts official and one of Dyer's persecutors, wrote, "Mary Dyer did hang as a flag for others to take example by. A strong reaction from a contemporary woman and friend of Mary Dyer came from Anne Brinley Coddington, with whom Dyer spent her final winter on Shelter Island.
Anne Coddington sent a scathing letter to the Massachusetts magistrates, singling out Governor Endicott's role in the execution. 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 One more Quaker was martyred at the hands of the Puritans, William Leddra of the Barbadoes, who was hanged in March In a document dated 9 September 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.
While the royal response put an end to executions, the Puritans continued to find ways to harangue the Quakers who came to Massachusetts. In they passed the "Cart and Tail Law", having Quakers tied to carts, stripped to the waist, and dragged through various towns behind the cart, being whipped en route, until they were taken out of the colony.
Nevertheless, whippings and imprisonments continued into the s, after which popular sentiment, coupled with the royal directives, finally put an end to the Quaker persecution. According to literary scholar Anne Myles, the life of Mary Dyer "functions as a powerful, almost allegorical example of a woman returning, over and over, to the same power-infused site of legal and discursive control.
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But Myles sees her behavior as "a richly legible text of female agency, affiliation, and dissent. The first is that Dyer's actions "can be read as staging a public drama of agency," a means for women, including female prophets, to act under the power and will of God. While Quaker women were allowed to preach, they were not being assertive when doing so because they were actually "preaching against their own wills and minds. Dyer possessed a "vigorous intentionality" in engaging with the magistrates and ministers, both in her speech and in her behavior.
Even though those who chronicled her actions and life, such as Burroughs and Rogers, looked at her as being submissive to the will of God, she was nevertheless the active participant in her fate, voluntarily choosing to become a martyr. She took full responsibility for her actions, while imploring the Puritan authorities to assume their moral responsibility for her death. This provides a distinguishing feature between Dyer and Anne Hutchinson, the latter of whom may not have fully comprehended the consequences of her behavior. While Dyer's husband and those unsympathetic to her labelled her as having a "madness", it is clear from her letters and her spoken words that her purpose and intentions were displayed with the utmost clarity of mind.
During her dialogues, while walking to the gallows, or standing on the ladder under the hanging tree, Dyer exchanged a series of "yeas" and "nays" with her detractors. With these affirmations and negations, she was refusing to allow others to construct her meaning. She refuted the image of her as a sinner in need of repentance, and contested the authority of the elders of the church.
Just like Hutchinson's befuddling of her accusers during her civil trial, Dyer did not allow her interrogators to feel assured in how they framed her meaning. While agency is the first of two dimensions of Dyer's story, the second is allegiance. Dyer became a known in the public eye on the day when Anne Hutchinson was excommunicated, and Dyer took her hand while they walked out of the meeting house together.
Dyer had a strong affiliation and allegiance to this older woman who shared the secret of her unfortunate birth. Likewise, two decades later she framed her acts as a means to stand by her friends and share in their fate. Thus the Puritan public found it very unusual that Dyer walked to the gallows hand-in-hand between two male friends, and she was asked if she was not ashamed of doing so. This spiritual closeness of the Quakers was very threatening to the Puritan mindset where allegiance was controlled by the male church members. The Quakers allowed their personal bonds to transgress not only gender lines but also the boundaries of age and class.
In her first letter to the General Court, Dyer used the themes of agency and allegiance in creating an analogy between her witnessing in Massachusetts with the Book of Esther. Esther, a Jew , was called upon to save her people after the evil Haman urged the king to enact a law to have all Jews put to death. It was Esther's intercession with the king that saved her people, and the parallels are that Dyer is the beautiful Esther, with wicked Haman representing the Massachusetts authorities, and the Jews of the Bible being the Quakers of Dyer's time.
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. 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 memorial was a grass roots effort by a local Newport organization, the Anne Hutchinson Memorial Committee headed by Newport artist, Valerie Debrule.
The organization, called Friends of Anne Hutchinson, meets annually at the memorial in Portsmouth, on the Sunday nearest to 20 July, the date of Anne's baptism, to celebrate her life and the local colonial history of the women of Aquidneck Island. While Dyer published no works herself, she did write two letters which have been preserved, both of them focal to her martyrdom, and both of them published in her biographies. Mary Dyer had eight known children, six of whom grew to adulthood.
Following her martyrdom, her husband remarried and had one more known child, and possibly others. Her oldest child, William, was baptized at St Martin-in-the-Fields London on 24 October and was buried there three days later. After sailing to New England, her second child, Samuel, was baptized at the Boston church on 20 December and married by to Anne Hutchinson, the daughter of Edward Hutchinson and the granddaughter of William and Anne Hutchinson.
Her third child was the premature stillborn female, born 17 October , discussed earlier. Henry, born roughly , was the fourth child, and he married Elizabeth Sanford, the daughter of John Sanford, Jr. The fifth child was a second William, born about , who married Mary, possibly a daughter of Richard Walker of Lynn, Massachusetts, but no evidence supports this. Child number six was a male and given the Biblical name Mahershallalhashbaz.
He was married to Martha Pearce, the daughter of Richard Pearce. Mary was the seventh child, born roughly , and married by about Henry Ward; they were living in Cecil County, Maryland, in January Mary Dyer's youngest child was Charles, born roughly , whose first wife was named Mary; there are unsupported claims that she was a daughter of John Lippett. Charles married second after Martha Brownell Wait, who survived him. There is no evidence that Mary's husband, William Dyer, ever became a Quaker.
However, her two sons, Samuel and Mahershallalhashbaz, were likely Quakers because they were required to appear before the General Court of Trials at Portsmouth, Rhode Island to face charges for not serving in the military. In general, Quakers refused to serve in the military, and the charges were eventually dropped. There was a lot of litigation concerning the estate of William Dyer, Sr; his widow, Katherine, took both the widow of his son Samuel and later his son Charles to court over the estate, likely feeling that more of his estate belonged to his children with her.
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Retrieved 29 December CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Rhode Island Women's Hall of Fame. Knight Princess Red Wing. Inductees to the National Women's Hall of Fame. Margaret Sanger Sojourner Truth. Carrie Chapman Catt Frances Perkins. Belva Lockwood Lucretia Mott.
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Walker Faye Wattleton Rosalyn S. Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. This page was last edited on 10 November , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I'm so lucky to have Nick as my illustrator.
I think he's absolutely brilliant. I loved 'Nancy and Plum' by Betty Macdonald. I've written several books with boys as the main characters 'Cliffhanger', 'Buried Alive', 'The Were Puppy' etc but I just find it easier to write about girls. I like to write early in the morning, sitting on a chaise longue upstairs. Jacob sometimes curls at my feet. It takes about six months. It's annoying when it probably takes you only a few days to read one of my books. Yes, I get enormous Jiffy bags full of letters, and many hundreds of emails sent to me each month too.
When I had to introduce the Queen to all my fellow authors on the day she was celebrating her 80th birthday. It's very enjoyable, especially when lots of people turn up to listen when I give talks. But most of the time I lead a very ordinary life: I chat to my friends, I phone my daughter, I take Jackson for a walk in the park, I browse in bookshops, I go for a swim, I watch box sets, I read late into the night.
I wish there was a handy Christmas Elf who could come skipping up with a pen in hand, offering to write them all for me! I have decorated my Christmas tree — and every time I go near it all the familiar ornaments and the twinkling lights bring a smile to my face. My dog Jackson seems to like it too — but my poor timid cat Jacob is very wary and keeps as far away as possible. Jackson is delighted and settles down in the nearest chair, luxuriating in the heat. Jacob mews piteously and avoids it at all cost — though he loves the radiators and likes his special cat tower to be right next door to one.
There was a special DJ who organized party games and provided ear-splitting music, a brilliant Christmas meal, and a visit from Santa who gave out presents to everyone. We have four dogs between us, but luckily they all get on splendidly. They rush around happily for ten minutes, and then settle on the nearest comfy lap for a little doze.
I am a bit apprehensive about writing this email because I have written once or twice before but I haven't ever got a reply. My name is Lauren, I am 12 years old and I don't like your books I think you are an amazing author! Also since I was little I have wanted to be an author! I have entered several story writing competitions although not very recently!
I did become a star reviewer and was featured in your magazine! I will keep this email short as I am sure you have more important things to do than read my email!! I loved writing that book and got very fond of that grumpy old magic toad. She's always busy writing brilliant new books for you to enjoy, and visiting bookshops where she tries to meet as many of you as she can. Every month, we at the Official Jacqueline Wilson fan club collect all your letters and send them on to Jacqueline — then she chooses her favourite, most interesting and original email to answer on this very special fan mail page.
So if you have 'contacted Jacky' do check back to see if your letter has been chosen! And if you need to talk to someone in complete confidence about anything that is worrying you, please contact Childline.
Here you'll find information and links whenever Jacqueline appears in the news and media. My last event - and it was a brilliant one too! The girls gave excellent readings, and there were all sorts of crafts and quizzes to take part in. I gave a talk in the morning and another in the afternoon, and signed multiple copies of my two Hetty books. I met such interesting people too - lovely sisters called Precious, Faith and Blessing, and Isadora who had a copy of my favourite children's book 'Nancy and Plum'.
I especially liked Molly who wrote a wonderful story for me from Jacob's point of view - and she gave me a little woolly mouse present for him too. They always make a big fuss of me — and this time insisted on giving me two beautiful Faith Jaques picture books as a present. It was originally going to be an adult evening but lots of lovely girls came too, all in beautiful party dresses.
The next morning we drove over to Haworth where I was giving a talk arranged by the Bronte Parsonage Museum. Charlotte Bronte has been my favourite classic writer since I was a teenager, so I was thrilled to be invited. I was shown all around the wonderfully atmospheric museum and then taken behind the scenes. It was great fun to go to Butlins in Bognor — I wish there had been time to go on some of the rides. Ruby and Lottie gave me a wonderful enormous picture of my little cat Jacob and me signing books for all my favourite characters.
Kitty made Jacob his own cute toy mouse and Ella gave me a beautiful sparkly necklace. I even had a very special early Christmas card from Leah. The event was beautifully organised by Rosalind Buckland the librarian there. It was hard work for Nick and me, but extremely enjoyable. After lunch Nick and I met all thirty competition winners and sgned books and had our photos taken and then we had a special press conference led by four excellent young girl reporters. Then Nick and I judged competitions. I found it such a hard task. I presented the prize to her when I gave my talk in the evening and then I was kept very busy signing.
I met Caitlyn and Lydia two very keen fans wearing woolly hats and customised T shirts. Her younger sister Frankie told me all about her three cats. I also met a fantastic boy fan, Samuel in a zany lion T shirt. It was so exciting to go to Seven Stories in Newcastle to see my very own exhibition there, Daydreams and Diaries: Gill and Alison and their brilliant team have worked so hard to make it such a wonderful exhibition too. You start off in a replica of my childhood bedroom and see all my favourite pictures and books and dolls — you can even open a chest of drawers and see the sort of dresses I used to wear!
The exhibition features all my favourite books, the actual sofa from the set of Tracy Beaker Returns, and you can try on Victorian style hats and make a Hetty Feather silhouette. The exhibition celebrates my dear friend Nick too — you can view all our holiday snaps.
If you get to go to Seven Stories, do write and let me know which part you like the most. I met up with Charlotte and her brother Brandon and their Mum and had a happy chat before my event. I talked for an hour and then started signing books. First in the queue were sisters Josie and Chloe who have called their chicken Hetty Feather! I was taken with two other sisters called Elkie and Phoenix, a talented artist called Nia, and a delightful small girl called Tilly who suggested I should read Anne of Green Gables.
I also saw Aleysha who last met me at WH Smith in Reading and had gorgeous, glossy photos to prove it. Kate organised a brilliant event and I met such lovely children.
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I was taken with friends Gabriella who likes writing and ballet and Isabella who likes reading and ice skating. Jolene gave me a beautiful big bouquet of flowers. I loved chatting to Dottie and her Mum and also to Bell and Holiday, two friends with beautifully unusual names. I love going to Bath my birth city! I spoke to 1, people. I think this is a new record, my biggest audience ever. John and his team at the Bath Festival made everything run very smoothly and it was lovely to be introduced by my old friend Jeremy Strong we share Nick Sharratt as an illustrator!
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Biography Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in , but spent most of her childhood in Kingston-on-Thames. Frequently Asked Questions Where were you born? I was born in Bath, but we moved to Kingston when I was little. I've lived here ever since. What sort of family do you have? What sort of house do you live in?
Do you have any pets? When is your birthday? What sort of music do you like? I like most kinds, and I've always been a big fan of Freddie Mercury and Queen. I love a long-ago black and white film called 'Mandy' about a little deaf girl. I often wear black, with lots of silver jewellery. What was your favourite subject at school?
I loved English, especially writing stories. I also liked Art. What was your worst subject at school? Which school did you go to? Did you have any jobs apart from writing? Did you always want to be a writer? Ever since I was six years old. How many books have you published? Which is your favourite out of all your books? It's hard to choose, but I think I like 'Hetty Feather' most of all. Where do you get your ideas from? I don't really know. They just pop into my head.
Who is your favourite character in your books? Do you base your characters on real people? No, I much prefer to make them all up. Are your books always illustrated by Nick Sharratt?
Which was your favourite book when you were a child? Have you ever written any books for adults? I wrote a few crime novels for adults long ago, but I much prefer writing for children.