Who Was Mary Surratt?

            Born in June 1823, Mary Surratt was the first ever woman in the history of US to be executed by the Federal Government. She was executed for her part in the murder in of the American President Abraham Lincoln. Mary had two brothers and her father died when she was only two years of age. She then enrolled in a girl's boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia. In the year 1839 she married John Harrison Surratt when she was just sixteen years of age and her husband at that time was twenty seven years old. Their children were Isaac, Elizabeth Susanna and John Jr. They made their living growing tobacco. Later they opened a general store, gristmill and a tavern.

            In 1862 her husband passed away and two years after his death she in 1864 moved along with her children to Washington, D.C and moved in with a former police man named John Lloyd and opened a boarding house on H Street. This boarding house was in fact a secret meeting place for Lincoln's conspirators. The assassin John Wilkes Booth stopped at her tavern along with his accomplice after assassinating the President. She was arrested for conspiring to kill the President and was found guilty of all these charges as all proof against her revealed her active involvement in the complete plot. On the 7th of July in the year 1865 she was hanged.

The couple went to live on lands that John had inherited from his foster parents, the Neales, in what is now a section of Washington known as Congress Heights. John and Mary had 3 children.  Isaac was born on June 2, 1841. Anna was born on January 1, 1843, and John Jr. was born on April 13, 1844.

Mary Surratt was an American woman who was one of those who assassinated the former American president Abraham Lincoln. She was sentenced to death by the American government. She was suspected to be the part of the conspiracy and was later proved guilty. She was hung on July 7, 1865 and was considered to be the first woman to be killed this way in the American history. Her son, John Surratt was also considered to be the part of the conspiracy. She led a very normal life and got married at an age of sixteen and used to work on farms. During her time of death, she kept praying and refused to eat anything.

It is said that she was not feeling so well and was almost fainting during the time of her execution.