Mary Surratt
Shortly before execution at age 42
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Surratt
"The Conspirator," A Movie About Mary Surratt, Directed By Robert Redford
Awaiting execution
July 7, 1865
Dear Chuck,
I just learned that The Conspirator is streamable at Netflix. I plan to watch it tonight. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0968264/
Here is an email (with lots of information about Mary Surratt) which I recently sent to my brother-in-law, Rob, who first alerted me to this film. Rob's friend and former co-worker, Zoe K, plays cello solos on the soundtrack.
Decades ago, my best friend Steve (requiescat in pacem) took me to a Chinese Restaurant on the ground floor of a simple brick building on (what I remember as) a nondescript D.C. side street. (The current address is 604 H Street NW.)
A small brass plaque next to the front door was the only indication that this building was where Mary Surratt's son and co-conspirators plotted Lincoln's assassination.
Here is Wikipedia's entry about Mary's "boarding house" - with a recent photo indicating that the Chinese Restaurant still operates there. http://en.wikipedia.
While tracking down Surratt's address, I came across the following article which mentions Mary's Maryland childhood and years spent at a Catholic seminary run by the Sisters of Charity:
MARY SURRATT CO-CONSPIRATOR LINCOLN ASSASSINATIONSubmitted by Webmaster Ann on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 20:47 |
Mary Jenkins, born in Waterloo, Maryland and schooled in a Catholic female seminary, married John Surratt at age seventeen. In 1853, the Surratts bought 287 acres of land in Prince George's County--about a two-hour horse ride from Washington. Surratt built a tavern and a post office, and the property became known as Surrattsville. (During the Civil War, the tavern apparently served as a safehouse in the Confederate underground network.) The couple raised three children, Isaac, Anna, and John Jr.
In 1864, two years after John Surratt died, Mary Surratt decided to move to a house she owned in Washington at 541 High Street. The tavern in Surrattsville she rented to an ex-policeman named John Lloyd, who would later provide the key evidence against her in the conspiracy trial.
Mary Surratt's eldest son, John, served in the Civil War as a Confederate secret agent. John Surratt's acquaintances included many of the key figures in the assassination conspiracy, including John Wilkes Booth, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Powell.
On the day of the assassination, April 14, Mary Surratt sent Weichmann to hire a buggy for another two-hour ride to Surrattsville.
Weichmann reported that Surratt took along "a package, done up in paper, about six inches in diameter." Surratt and Weichman arrived sometime after four at Surratt's tavern. Surratt went inside while Weichmann waited outside or spent time in the bar. Surratt remained inside about two hours. Between six and six-thirty, shortly before they began their return trip to Washingon, Weichmann saw Mary Surratt speaking privately in the parlor of the tavern with John Wilkes Booth. At nine o'clock, Surratt saw Booth for a last time when he visited her home in Washington. After the visit, according to Weichmann, Surratt's demeanor changed--she became "very nervous, agitated and restless."
Less than seven hours later, as the President lay dying and Booth having fled, investigators paid an initial visit to the Surratt home.
According to Thomas Harris, a member of the Military Commission that tried Surratt, the most damning evidence against her came from Surrattsville tavernkeeper John Lloyd. Lloyd told the Commission that five to six weeks before the assassination John Surratt, David Herold, and George Atzerodt came to Surrattsville to drop off at his tavern two carbines, ammunition, about twenty feet of rope, and a monkey wrench. The men asked Lloyd to conceal them, with Surratt suggesting a hiding place under joists in a second-floor room.
After a last-ditch effort to delay her prosecution by way of a writ of habeas corpus failed when President Johnson declared the writ suspended for this case, Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865 along with three other conspirators. Surratt became the first woman executed by the United States.
Alan here... Mary Surratt's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Lincoln conspirator. She was born Mary Elizabeth Jenkins to a farming family in Prince George County, Maryland near what today is the town of Waterloo. Her education was above average for women of that time. Mary attended St. Mary's Catholic School in Alexandria, Virginia which was staffed by the Sisters of Charity. She was married at seventeen to John H. Surratt and they set up housekeeping on his Prince George County farm. After the house was destroyed by fire, her husband rebuilt at another location which today is Clinton, Maryland. The structure was a combination residence/ tavern and served as a post office for the area then known as Surrattsville. He died leaving her with three children, the debt ridden tavern and post office and the valuable property in Washington D.C. which would later become the ill-fated boardinghouse involved in the Lincoln murder. Her son John assumed the appointment as postmaster after the death of his father but was removed because of his known deep southern sympathies. It was later determined he had become a Confederate agent during the war operating as a courier in southern Maryland and Washington D.C. Unable to meet financial obligations, she rented the Maryland tavern to John Minchin Lloyd and relocated to her sole debt-free property at 541 H Street, Washington D.C. and opened a boarding house. John Lloyd would later give testimony at her trial which would be instrumental in her conviction. John Harrison helped his mother operate the facility while also consorting with other southern sympathizers who gathered at the boarding house for meetings. Following the Lincoln assassination, the house was searched as well as her rented tavern in Maryland. Taken into Federal custody, Mary was charged with complicity in the killing of President Lincoln. The federal government considered the Lincoln murder nothing more then post-Confederate continuance of the Civil War. The mood of the country was angry and vengeful, demanding swift apprehension and maximum justice. Any person under even the slightest hint of suspicion by association or circumstantial evidence was deemed guilty. Thusly...Mary Surratt was convicted by a military court, condemned to death. Her appeals were quickly denied. Her daughter went personalty to the White House on the morning of the execution to plead with President Johnson. She was physically removed from the property by a Whitehouse official before any meeting could take place. Mary was hanged along with the other convicted and condemned. They were...Lewis Paine, David Herold, George Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin. Her son John Harrison had escaped by fleeing to Canada, then Europe and after extradition and a trial was acquitted. Her body was kept in a vault until released to her daughter Anna four years after her hanging. She was buried in Washington's Mt Olive Cemetery. Upon her children's death, daughter Anna and son Isaac were buried on each side of their mother. A small white stone was erected on the site. Epilogue: The boarding house owned by Mary Surratt still stands in Washington but is privately owned and today houses a Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown section of the city. However, the tavern built by her husband located at 9118 Brandywine Rd, Clinton Maryland was a safehouse during the civil war and used by the extensive Confederate underground operating in southern Maryland in which her son John was an agent. A museum today, it houses many mementoes and relics from the period. It is one of the places John Booth and his companion David Herold stopped for help. The inn keeper gave them a carbine and field glasses as they fled after the assassination. The structure was completely restored in 1976 and owned by The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission while aided by the Surratt Society which presents many programs and events pertaining to the Lincoln assassination and the taverns history. (bio by: Donald Greyfield)
Cause of death: Executed by hanging
Birth: May 4, 1820 Death: Jul. 7, 1865
District of ColumbiaBuried: Mount Olivet Cemetery
Washington
District of Columbia
District Of Columbia, USA
Plot: Section 12-F, Lot 31
Birth: May 4, 1820 Death: Jul. 7, 1865
District of ColumbiaBuried: Mount Olivet Cemetery
Washington
District of Columbia
District Of Columbia, USA
Plot: Section 12-F, Lot 31
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Mar 13
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Dear Rob,
Thanks for the tip. I had no idea there was such a movie. And I'm a Redford fan!
Here are the last two paragraphs of Ebert's review:
"Well, was Mary Surratt a conspirator? I put the question point-blank to Redford recently, and he said he thought she must surely have known what her son was discussing with the others under her roof. But her guilt isn't the issue. The film is about the correct means of determining guilt — or innocence. If the Constitution says you can't do something, if it guarantees a due process, then it must be obeyed. All of this requires a lot of theory, a lot of philosophy and lot of dialogue. Those most interested in American history will probably find "The Conspirator" most valuable. Those who want a historical romance or a courtroom potboiler will be disappointed. You have to give credit to Redford, Wright and McAvoy, and the other filmmakers. Not many films this smart can be made." - http://rogerebert.
Pax
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