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Mary Dyer (born Marie Barrett; c. 1611 – 1 June 1660) was an English and colonial American Puritan-turned-Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, for repeatedly defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony.
Mary Dyer (born early 1600s, probably Somersetshire, England—died June 1, 1660, Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony [now in Massachusetts, U.S.]) was a British-born religious figure whose martyrdom to her Quaker faith helped relieve the persecution of that group in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mary Barrett Dyer (1611 – 1660) was an English Puritan turned Quaker who was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for repeatedly defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is one of the four executed Quakers known as the Boston martyrs.
During the trip, Mary attended a sermon led by George Fox. George was the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, also called Quakers. The Quakers believed in a personal relationship with God, rejected large religious ceremonies, and thought that women and men were equally able to be spiritual leaders.
Mary Dyer was a Quaker martyr in colonial Massachusetts. Her execution, and the religious freedom initiatives taken in memory of that, make her a key figure in American religious freedom history. She was hanged on June 1, 1660.
For Mary Dyer, her spiritual quest took her from England to Boston to Rhode Island, back to England, where she became an ardent member of a new religion —a Quaker, or a member of the Society of Friends as they are now more formally known.
Jun 11, 2018 · After traveling to England with her husband in 1652, Dyer became a Quaker (member of the Religious Society of Friends who believe that the individual can receive divine truth from the Holy Spirit through his or her own "inner light" without the guidance of a minister or priest).
