BIO: Mary Dyer and her companions, Quaker martyrs (1 Jun 1660)


A list of related biographies follows:
  MARY DYER, QUAKER MARTYR (1 JUN 1660)
  ROBERT BARCLAY, QUAKER THEOLOGIAN (3 OCT 1690)
  GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE QUAKERS (13 JAN 1691)
  WILLIAM PENN, QUAKER STATESMAN (30 JUL 1718)
  JOHN WOOLMAN, QUAKER VOICE OF CONSCIENCE (7 OCT 1772)
  ELIZABETH GURNEY FRY, QUAKER HELPER OF PRISONERS (12 OCT 1845)
  JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, EVANGELICAL QUAKER (4 JAN 1847)
  STEPHEN GRELLET, QUAKER ARISTOCRAT (16 NOV 1855)
  RUFUS JONES, QUAKER MYSTIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST (16 JUN 1948)
  KENNETH BOULDING, QUAKER ECONOMIST FOR PEACE (19 MAY 1993)
  (Many of the biographies have appended sections on aspects of the
  Quaker mvement.)

The Quaker movement was founded in England by George Fox (see 13
Jan) in the mid-1600s. Before discussing its martyrs, we offer a
little background.  Fox proclaimed that Jesus Christ was present in
and among his people to teach them all things, and that therefore
they had no need of the traditional clergy.  This doctrine had an
electrifying effect on those who accepted it.

$$$ THE QUAKER EXPERIENCE

One early Quaker (Edward Burrough, 1633-1663) writes:
   We obeyed the Light of Christ in us, and took up the Cross to
   all earthly glories, crowns, and ways, and denied ourselves,
   our relations, and all that stood in the way between us and the
   Lord. And while waiting on the Lord in silence, as often we
   did for many hours together, we received often the pouring down
   of the Spirit upon us and our hearts were made glad, and our
   tongues loosed, and our mouths opened... and the glory of the
   Father was revealed; and then began we to sing praises to the
   Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb forever, who has redeemed us
   to God, and brought us out of the captivity and bondage of the
   world, and put an end to sin and death.

Francis Howgill (1618-1669) writes:
   The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a
   net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to
   land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in;
   and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment,
   amazement, and great admiration, insomuch that we often said
   one unto another with great joy of heart: "What, is the Kingdom
   of God come to be with men? And will he take up his tabernacle
   among the sons of men, as he did of old? Shall we, that were
   reckoned as the outcasts of Israel, have this honour of glory
   communicated amongst us, which were but men of small parts and
   of little abilities, in respect of many others, as amongst
   men?" And from that day forward, our hearts were knit unto the
   Lord and one unto another in true and fervent love, in the
   covenant of Life with God; and that was a strong obligation or
   bond upon all our spirits, which united us one unto another. We
   met together in the unity of the Spirit, and of the bond of
   peace, treading down under our feet all reasoning about
   religion. And holy resolutions were kindled in our hearts as a
   fire which the Life kindled in us to serve the Lord while we
   had a being, and mightily did the Word of God grow amongst us,
   and the desires of many were after the Name of the Lord. O
   happy day! O blessed day! the memorial of which can never pass
   out of my mind. And thus the Lord, in short, did form us to be
   a people for his praise in our generation.

     Isaac Penington and his wife Mary were among the first members
of the aristocracy to become Quakers. Penington wrote of his
experience as follows:
     [NOTE: Quakers often refer to Christ, or the Logos of John 1:1,
as the Seed, referring to such passages as Galatians 3:16; 1 Peter
1:23; 1 John 3:9.]
   At last, after all my distresses, wanderings, and sore travels,
   I met with some writings of this people called Quakers, which I
   cast a slight eye upon and disdained, as falling very short of
   that wisdom, light, life and power, which I had been longing
   for and searching after.... After a long time, I was invited to
   hear one of them.... When I came, I felt the presence and power
   of the Most High among them, and words of truth from the Spirit
   of truth reaching to my heart and conscience, opening my state
   as in the presence of the Lord. Yea, I did not only feel words
   and demonstrations from without, but I felt the dead quickened,
   the seed raised; insomuch as my heart, in the certainty of
   light and clearness of true sense, said: "This is he: this is
   he: there is no other; this is he whom I have waited for and
   sought after from my childhood, who was always near me, and had
   often begotten life in my heart, but I knew him not distinctly,
   nor how to receive him or dwell with him." And then in this
   sense (in the meltings and breakings of my spirit) was I given
   up to the Lord, to become his, both in waiting for the further
   revealing of his seed in me, and, and to serve him in the life
   and power of his seed.
        But some may desire to know what I have at last met with.
   I answer, "I have met with the Seed." Understand that word, and
   thou wilt be satisfied and inquire no further. I have met with
   my God, I have met with my Saviour, and he hath not been
   present with me without his Salvation, but I have felt the
   healings drop upon my soul from under his wings. I have met
   with the Seed's Father, and in the Seed I have felt him my
   Father; there I have read his nature, his love, his
   compassions, his tenderness, which have melted, overcome, and
   changed my heart before him.

$$$ PERSECUTION OF QUAKERS

     Inevitably, the Quakers' firm rejection of the existing
churches, reinforced by their peculiarities of dress, speech, and
manner, aroused suspicion and hostility.
     Some Protestants believed that the Quakers kept their hats on
to conceal the fact that their heads were tonsured, shaved after the
manner of monks, and that they were secretly agents of the Pope.

     Between 1649 and 1675, Fox was imprisoned nine times. It must
be understood that prison in those days was a greater hardship than
it is in England today. Prisons were often unheated in the winter.
One notorious prison, the Tolbooth, where several Quakers were
imprisoned for many months, was a large room, built of stone, with
no windows, and no beds or other furniture or toilet facilities. The
prisoners were left in almost total darkness to stand, sit, or lie
in the accumulated filth of years.

     In 1653, Fox was arrested on suspicion of disloyalty to
Cromwell's government, and was sent to Cromwell, who spoke with him,
found no harm in him, and released him. However, soon after,
Cromwell ordered that persons suspected of Roman Catholic leanings
must take an Oath of Abjuration, forswearing all allegiance to the
Pope, on pain of imprisonment and loss of property. Since Quakers
did not take oaths, many of them were imprisoned under this law.
Moreover, the law required prisoners to pay for their food while in
prison, and to remain in prison until their bills were paid. The
Quakers said that they had been wrongfully imprisoned, and refused
to pay. Accordingly, many of them were in prison far longer than
their original sentences required.
     In 1657 Fox said: "There are seldom fewer than one thousand in
prison in this nation for Truth's sake." By this time, there were
about 40,000 Quakers altogether.

     In May 1660, Charles II returned from exile and was proclaimed
King in London <51:30 N 0:10 W>. In January 1661, a group called the
Fifth Monarchy Men (taking their name from the prophecy in Daniel 2
of the four earthly empires to be succeeded by the Empire of Christ)
made an armed uprising against him. They were put down, and the
Quakers were suspected of being part of the plot, or or having
similar intentions. When the uprising was suppressed, Quakers were
arrested at their meetings the following Sunday--4200 altogether,
500 in London alone.

     In 1663 Fox was arrested on suspicion of plotting against the
Crown. When there was no evidence of his guilt, the judges required
him to swear allegiance to the Crown. They brought him a Bible, and
he took it into his hand, and said: "Ye have given me a book here to
kiss and swear on. And in this book, the Son says, 'Swear not at
all!' Now I say as the book says, and yet ye imprison me. Why do ye
not imprison the book?"
     The majority of Quakers who were imprisoned during the
twenty-five years following the Restoration were punished more for
the rejection of the Oath than for any other single reason. It was
naturally difficult for all the magistrates to make a fine
distinction between those who rejected the Oath because they hated
King Charles and those who rejected it because an oath of any kind
seemed to be an act of disobedience to the specific command of
Christ (Matt. 5:34-37) and a rejection of the single standard of
truthtelling, to which all sincere Christians should adhere.

     The Quaker Act of 1662 placed the movement under severe legal
disabilities. In 1664 the Conventicle Act was passed. No more than
five persons were allowed to hold a religious meeting other than a
Church of England service. The penalty was five pounds for the first
offense, ten pounds or six months' imprisonment for the second, and
transportation abroad for the third. The Quakers defied the law.
Where all the men were arrested, the women continued the meetings.
Where all the men and all the women were arrested, the children
continued the meetings. During the first two years of the
Restoration, more than 3,000 Quakers were imprisoned. By 1689,
12,000 more had been in jail. More than 450 died there, and about 50
more shortly after being released. In 1689 Parliament passed the
Toleration Act, putting an end to the persecution in England.

$$$ MARY DYER AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

     Although many Quakers in the British Isles were imprisoned
under severe and life-shortening conditions, and some died in
prison, none were actually put to death for their beliefs. However,
in the colony of Massachusetts <@ 42:10 N 72 W>, there were actual
executions.
     William and Mary Dyer, of Somerset <@ 51 N 3 W>, England, moved
to Massachusetts in 1635. In 1638, when Anne Hutchinson was expelled
from the colony, they went with her to Rhode Island <@ 41:30 N 72:30
W>, a colony founded on the principle of religious liberty. In 1650
they returned to England and there became Quakers.
     In 1656, two Quaker women, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, arrived
in Boston from Barbados <@ 13:10 N 59:35 W> with a trunkful of
literature. They were imprisoned for five weeks and shipped back to
Barbados. Their literature was confiscated. In 1657 the Dyers
returned to New England. Also in 1657, two male Quakers, William
Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, were arrested for trying to speak
to the congregation after the regular Sunday service. They were
imprisoned for nine weeks and whipped twice a week and then
banished. A law was passed, levying a fine of 100 pounds for
bringing a Quaker into the colony, and two pounds per hour for
concealing or harboring a Quaker. Any Quaker who returned from
banishment was to lose an ear each of the first two times he
returned, and to have his tongue bored through with a hot iron the
third time.
     Mary visited Quakers in prison, and was banished from the
colony.
     In 1658 Robinson and Stevenson returned. At this, returning
after banishment was made a capital offense. In 1659, Mary Dyer
returned, and was sentenced to be hanged. On 27 October 1659, she
watched as Robinson and Stevenson were hanged, one after the other.
Then she was placed on the scaffold, and the noose was fastened
about her neck. She was then released and banished from the colony,
with a warning that she would be hanged if she returned. She
returned, and was arrested and sentenced to be hanged, but offered
her life if she would promise to leave the colony and not return.
On her refusal, she was hanged on Boston Common, 1 June 1660. A
bystander remarked, "She hangs there like a flag." The modern
composer Ned Rorem has written an organ piece called "Mary Dyer hung
like a flag" in her memory. Mary Dyer was the only woman to die for
the cause of religious freedom in the American colonies.
     On 14 March 1661 one more Quaker was hanged. I do not know his
name. After this there were no more hangings, but any convicted
Quaker was to be tied to a cart's tail, and made to walk behind the
cart all the way to the border of the colony, being whipped at every
step. In 1665 the London government forbade further molesting of the
Quakers in Massachusetts.

$$$ FOR FURTHER READING


 @@@ DYER, MARY
     Ruth T Plimpton, MARY DYER: biography of a rebel Quaker, 300pp
(1994) $22 0-8283-1964-2 Brandon Pub Co