Mary Surratt

Early Life and the Surratt Boarding House

Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt was born around 1823 in Waterloo, Maryland. She converted to Catholicism as a young woman and married John Harrison Surratt Sr. in 1840. The couple operated a tavern and post office in Surrattsville, Maryland — a small community that would later bear her family name. After her husband's death in 1862, Mary moved to Washington D.C. and opened a boarding house at 541 H Street NW. That boarding house would become the central meeting place for the conspirators who plotted the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

The Boarding House and the Conspiracy

Mary Surratt's H Street boarding house was the nerve center of the Lincoln assassination conspiracy. John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and her own son John Surratt Jr. all met there repeatedly in the months before the assassination. The government's case against Mary rested on her role as the keeper of this meeting place, her trips to the Surrattsville tavern to prepare supplies for the conspirators' escape route, and testimony from witnesses who placed her in contact with Booth and the other plotters. She maintained her innocence throughout her trial and until her death.

Arrest, Trial, and the Military Tribunal

Mary Surratt was arrested on April 17, 1865 — three days after the assassination — when Lewis Powell appeared at her boarding house while detectives were searching it. She was tried before a military tribunal alongside seven other defendants, including Powell, Atzerodt, and Herold. The decision to use a military court rather than a civilian court was controversial from the start. Her defense attorneys argued that a civilian court was required for a civilian defendant in peacetime. The tribunal rejected this argument. On June 30, 1865, she was found guilty of conspiracy to murder the President and sentenced to death.

The Execution — July 7, 1865

Mary Surratt was hanged at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary in Washington D.C. on July 7, 1865, alongside Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David Herold. She was 42 years old. Her execution made her the first woman put to death by the United States federal government. Three of the four military judges who convicted her had signed a clemency petition asking President Andrew Johnson to commute her sentence to life imprisonment on account of her age and sex. Johnson later claimed he never saw the petition. Whether that claim was true has been disputed by historians ever since.

Was Mary Surratt Guilty?

The question of Mary Surratt's guilt has been debated by historians for over 150 years. The evidence against her was largely circumstantial: she kept the boarding house where the conspirators met, she made trips to the Surrattsville tavern, and she was connected to Booth through her son. Her defenders have argued that she was convicted on the basis of guilt by association — that she knew about the kidnapping plot but not the assassination, and that she was executed in part because the government needed a high-profile conviction and her son, the man Paul Mellen identifies as the actual shooter, had escaped.

The Contrast With Her Son's Fate

The most troubling aspect of Mary Surratt's case is the contrast with what happened to her son. John Surratt Jr. — the man Paul Mellen identifies as the actual gunman at Ford's Theatre — escaped to Canada, England, and Egypt. He was not arrested until November 1866, more than eighteen months after the assassination. When he was finally tried in 1867, the jury deadlocked and the case was dropped. He was never retried. He lived until 1916, dying at the age of 72. His mother, convicted on far less evidence, was dead within three months of the assassination. Paul Mellen argues that this disparity was not accidental — it was the result of a deliberate effort to close the case before the full truth could emerge.

Legacy and Historical Reassessment

Mary Surratt's legacy has undergone significant reassessment over the decades. Many historians today believe she did not receive a fair trial — that the use of a military tribunal, the rushed proceedings, and the political pressure to convict someone for Lincoln's murder all worked against her. Her boarding house at 541 H Street NW in Washington D.C. still stands and is now a Chinese restaurant. She is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington D.C. Paul Mellen's research adds a new dimension to her story: if his identification of John Surratt as the actual shooter is correct, then Mary Surratt was executed while the real killer walked free — a miscarriage of justice that has never been officially acknowledged.

Common Questions

Who Was Mary Surratt?

Answers based on Paul Mellen's years of archival research