Mary Dyer Statue

Mary-Dyer-Statue-WWP

Photo credit - WWP team

Mary Dyer was a Quaker who fought for religious freedom. In 1660 these beliefs were considered a crime, and she was persecuted for practicing Quakerism and eventually hanged for it.
Mary Dyer’s death influenced religious freedom legalization and the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Her statue has stood near the Massachusetts State House entrance, not far from where she was executed, since July 9th, 1959. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts commissioned the famous Quaker artist Sylvia Shaw Judson to create it, depicting Dyer sitting peacefully on a bench wearing Quaker clothes, looking at her hands as if praying.
The inscription on the stone pedestal reads:
“MARY DYER
QUAKER
WITNESS FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
HANGED ON BOSTON COMMON 1660
MY LIFE NOT AVAILETH ME IN COMPARION TO THE LIBERTY OF THE TRUTH”

Replicas of this statue stand at the Friends Center entrance, a Quaker hub in Philadelphia, and Stout Meetinghouse at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.Nearby the Mary Dyer statue, on Massachusetts State House grounds, stands the statue of another religious freedom fighter, Anne Hutchinson.

Boston History in a Minute: Mary Dyer

Mary Dyer is the subject of this week's Boston History in a Minute. A determined and principled woman, she fell out of favor in Massachusetts and was banished and later executed.

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The Mary Dyer Sculpture is featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.

Click here for more women-related places in Greater Boston area.



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Boston History in a Minute: Mary Dyer

Mary Dyer is the subject of this week's Boston History in a Minute. A determined and principled woman, she fell out of favor in Massachusetts and was banished and later executed.
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