Mary Surratt

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Mary Surratt bigraphy, stories - American murderer

Mary Surratt : biography

1823 – July 7, 1865

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins SurrattCashin, p. 287.Steers, 2010, p. 516.Larson, p. xi. (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to death, she was hanged, becoming the first woman executed by the United States federal government.Griffin, p. 152.Gillespie, p. 68. She was the mother of John H. Surratt, Jr., who was later tried but was not convicted in the assassination.

Early life

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (Webster) JenkinsTrindal, p. 13.Larson, p. 11. on a tobacco farm near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820Commire and Klezmer, p. 23.Sachsman, Rushing, and Morris, p. 264; MacHenry, p. 400.Van Doren and McHenry, p. 1010."Surratt, Mary," in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 411. or 1823.Griffin, p. 152.Buchanan, p. 60.Johnson, p. 96.Heidler, Heidler, and Coles, p. 1909.Phelps, p. 709. There is uncertainty as to the month as well, although most sources say May.

She had two brothers, John Zadoc, born in 1822, and James Archibal, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old. Although her father was a non-denominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian,"Surratt, Mary E. Jenkins (1823-1865)" in Women in the American Civil War, p. 532.Leonard, p. 43. Surratt was enrolled in a private Roman Catholic girls’ boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835.Trindal, p. 14. Mary’s maternal aunt, Sarah Latham Webster, was a Catholic, which may have influenced where she was sent to school. Within two years, Mary converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the baptismal name of Maria Eugenia.Trindal, p. 17. She stayed at the Academy for Young Ladies for four years, leaving in 1839, when the school closed. She remained a devout Catholic for the rest of her life.

Civil War and widowhood

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861. The border state of Maryland remained part of the United States ("the Union"), but the Surratts were Confederate sympathizersCashin, p. 289.Gamber, p. 96; Morseberger and Morsberger, p. 167. and their tavern regularly hosted fellow sympathizers.Larson, p. 24. (The Surratt tavern was being used as a "safe house" for Confederate spies,Kauffmann, p. 155. and at least one author concludes that Mary Surratt had "de facto" knowledge of this fact.) Confederate scout and spy Thomas Nelson Conrad visited Surratt’s boarding house before and during the Civil War.Conrad, Thomas Nelson. The Rebel Scout. Washington, DC: The National Publishing Co., 1904, p. 153-154.

On March 7, 1861, (three days after Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration as President of the United States) Isaac Surratt left Maryland and traveled to Texas, where he enlisted in the Confederate States Army (serving in the 33rd Cavalry, or Duff’s Partisan Rangers, 14th Cavalry Battalion).Jampoler, p. 23; Griffin, p. 154. John Jr. quit his studies at St. Charles College in July 1861 and became a courier for the Confederate Secret Service, moving messages, cash, and contraband back and forth across enemy lines.Cashin, p. 289-290; Chamlee, p. 531; Evans, p. 339-340. The Confederate activities in and around Surrattsville drew the attention of the Union government. In late 1861, Lafayette C. Baker, a detective with the Union Intelligence Service, and 300 Union soldiers camped in Surrattsville and investigated the Surratts and others for Confederate activities.Chamlee, p. 102. He quickly uncovered evidence of a large Confederate courier network operating in the area, but despite some arrests and warnings the courier network remained intact.

John Surratt collapsed suddenly and died on either August 25Larson, p. 25. or August 26Schroeder-Lein and Zuczek, p. 286.Zanca, p. 20. in 1862 (sources differ as to the date). The cause of death was a stroke.Trindal, p. 247. The Surratt family affairs were in serious financial difficulties. John Jr. and Anna both left school to help their mother run the family’s remaining farmland and businesses. On September 10, 1862, John Jr. was appointed postmaster of the Surrattsville post office.Trindal, p. 65.Kauffmann, p. 433.Swanson, p. 104. Lafayette Baker swept through Surrattsville again in 1862, during which time several postmasters were dismissed for disloyalty. John Jr. was not one of them. In August 1863, John Jr. sought a job in the paymaster’s department in the United States Department of War, but his application raised suspicions about his entire family’s loyalties to the Union. Surratt was dismissed as postmaster on November 17, 1863, for disloyalty.Steers, 2001, p. 81.