Mary Elizabeth Surratt (; May 4, 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and remains controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried in the conspiracy, but was not convicted.
Born in Maryland in the 1820s, Surratt converted to Catholicism at a young age and remained a practicing Catholic for the rest of her life. She wed John Harrison Surratt in 1840 and had three children with him. An entrepreneur, John became the owner of a tavern, an inn, and a hotel. The Surratts were sympathetic to the Confederate States of America and often hosted fellow Confederate sympathizers at their tavern.
Upon her husband's death in 1862, Surratt had to manage his estate. Tired of doing so without help, Surratt moved to her townhouse in Washington, D.C., which she then ran as a boardinghouse. There, she was introduced to John Wilkes Booth. Booth visited the boardinghouse numerous times, as did George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, Booth's co-conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Shortly before killing Lincoln, Booth spoke with Surratt and handed her a package containing binoculars for one of her tenants, John M. Lloyd.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Surratt was arrested, then tried by a military tribunal the following month, along with the other conspirators. She was convicted primarily due to the testimonies of Lloyd, who said that she told him to have the "shooting irons" ready, and Louis J. Weichmann, who testified about Surratt's relationships with Booth. Five of the nine judges at her trial asked that Surratt be granted clemency by President Andrew Johnson because of her age and sex. Johnson did not grant her clemency, though accounts differ as to whether or not he received the clemency request. Surratt was hanged on July 7, 1865, and later buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
Early life Mary Elizabeth Jenkins (baptismal name, Maria Eugenia) was born to Archibald and Elizabeth Anne (née Webster) JenkinsCashin, p. 287.Trindal, p. 13.Larson, p. 11. on a tobacco plantation near the southern Maryland town of Waterloo (now known as Clinton). Sources differ as to whether she was born in 1820"Surratt, Mary," in The New Encyclopædia Britannica, p. 411. or 1823.Steers, 2010, p. 516.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, but most sources say May.Van Doren and McHenry, p. 1010.
She had two brothers: John Jenkins, born in 1822, and James Jenkins, born in 1825. Her father died in the fall of 1825 when Mary was either two or five years old, and Mary's mother then inherited their property (originally part of the His Lordship's Kindness estate).Trindal, p. 14.
Although her father was a nondenominational Protestant and her mother Episcopalian,"Surratt, Mary E. Jenkins (1823–1865)" in Women in the American Civil War, p. 532.Leonard, p. 43. Surratt, raised as an Episcopal was enrolled in a private Catholic girls' boarding school, the Academy for Young Ladies in Alexandria, Virginia, on November 25, 1835. 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 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 an observant Catholic for the rest of her life.
Married life Mary Jenkins met John Harrison Surratt in 1839, when she was 16 or 19 and he was 26.Cashin, p. 288.Larson, p. 12. His family had settled in Maryland in the late 1600s. An orphan, he was adopted by Richard and Sarah Neale of Washington, D.C., a wealthy couple who owned a farm.Trindal, p. 19. The Neales divided their farm among their children, and Surratt inherited a portion of it. His background has been described by historian Kate Clifford Larson as "questionable", and he had fathered at least one child out of wedlock. They wed in August 1840.Trindal, p. 20. John converted to Catholicism prior to the marriage, and the couple may have wed at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C.One source says it is not clear that they married in a Catholic church. See: Jampoler, p. 25. Another claims they were married in a private home on Good Hope Road in Prince George's County, Maryland. See: Trindal, p. 20. John purchased a mill in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and the couple moved there. The Surratts had three children over the next few years: Isaac (born June 2, 1841), Elizabeth Susanna (nicknamed "Anna", born January 1, 1843), and John Jr. (born April 1844).Trindal, p. 20, 22.
In 1843, John Surratt purchased from his adoptive father of land straddling the DC/Maryland border, a parcel named "Foxhall" (approximately the area between Wheeler Road and Owens Road today).Trindal, p. 22. Richard Neale died in September 1843, and a month later, John purchased of land adjoining Foxhall. John and Mary Surratt and their children moved back to John's childhood home in the District of Columbia in 1845 to help John's mother run the Neale farm. But Sarah Neale fell ill and died in August 1845,Trindal, p. 25. having shortly before her death deeded the remainder of the Neale farm to John.Larson, p. 12–13. Mary Surratt became involved in raising funds to build St. Ignatius Church in Oxon Hill (it was constructed in 1850), but John was increasingly unhappy with his wife's religious activities.Larson, p. 13. His behavior deteriorated over the next few years. John drank heavily, often failed to pay his debts, and his temper was increasingly volatile and violent.Steers, 2001, p. 138–40.Kauffmann, p. 167.
In 1851, the Neale farmhouse burned to the ground (an escaped family slave was suspected of setting the blaze).Larson, p. 14. John found work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Mary moved with her children into the home of her cousin, Thomas Jenkins, in nearby Clinton.Larson, p. 16."Surratt, Mary Eugenia Jenkins (1817–1865)," in Historical Dictionary of Reconstruction, p. 217. Within a year, John purchased of farmland near what is now Clinton, and by 1853, he constructed a tavern and an inn there.Larson, p. 17. Mary initially refused to move herself and the children into the new residence. She took up residence on the old Neale farm, but John sold both the Neale farm and Foxhall in May 1853 to pay debts and she was forced to move back in with him in December.Larson, p. 18.
With the money he earned from the tavern and sale of his other property, on December 6, 1853, John Surratt bought a townhouse at 541 H Street (now known as 604 H St. 2024)With the imposition of the quadrant street naming system and other changes to the streets in the District of Columbia, the current address of the townhouse is 604 H Street NW. in Washington, D.C., and began renting it out to tenants.Chamlee, p. 165.Kauffmann, p. 412.Griffin, p. 153.At least one source says that the property was deeded to John as payment for debt and that he did not purchase it. See: Steers, 2010, p. 520. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern and called it Surratt's Hotel.Phillips, p. 87.
The area around the tavern was officially named Surrattsville that same year.Larson, p. 20. Travelers could take Branch Road (now Branch Avenue) north into Washington, D.C.; Piscataway Road southwest to Piscataway; or Woodyard Road northeast to Upper Marlboro. Although Surrattsville was a well-known crossroads,Steers, 2001, p. 80.Griffin, p. 148. the community did not amount to much: just the tavern, a post office (inside the tavern), a forge, and a dozen or so houses (some of them log cabins). Harris, p. 193; Townsend, 1886, p. 42. John Surratt was the hamlet's first postmaster.Busch, p. 17.Steers, 2010, p. 517.
He expanded his family's holdings by selling off land, paying down debt, and starting new businesses. Over the next few years, Surratt acquired or built a carriage house, corn crib, general store, forge, granary, gristmill, stable, tobacco curing house, and wheelwright's shop.Larson, p. 20–21. The family had enough money to send all three children to nearby Catholic boarding schools. Isaac and John Jr. attended the school at St. Thomas Manor, and Anna enrolled at the Academy for Young Ladies (Mary's alma mater).Larson, p. 21. The family's debts continued to mount, however, and John Sr.'s drinking worsened.Kauffmann, p. 436; Trindal, p. 43. John sold another of land in 1856 to pay debts.Trindal, p. 43. By 1857, Surratt had sold all but of the family's formerly extensive holdings (which represented about half the he had originally owned).Commire and Klezmer, p. 23.James, p. 410. Most of the family's slaves were also sold to pay debts. Still, his alcoholism worsened. In 1858, Mary wrote a letter to her local priest, telling him that Surratt was drunk every single day. In 1860, St. Thomas Manor School closed, and Isaac found work in Baltimore, Maryland. The Surratts sold off another of land, which enabled Anna to remain at the Academy for Young Ladies and for John Jr. to enroll at St. Charles College, Maryland (a Catholic seminary and boarding school in Ellicott's Mills).Cashin, p. 289. The couple also borrowed money that same year against their townhouse in Washington, DC, and at some point used the property as collateral for a $1,000 loan.
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 sympathizers,Cashin, 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 had "de facto" knowledge of this. 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 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.