Bad Ends · STOP 08 · Beacon Hill
The plinth says she was hanged on the Common. A judge's diary points a mile south.
Mary Dyer was already standing on the ladder once when the colony let her go. She came back, and Boston hanged her. Her bronze statue sits outside the State House, and its plinth says she was hanged on Boston Common. A 1911 paper, working from a judge's diary and an old map, put the gallows a mile south. Read the plinth and pick a side.
This is stop 8 of Bad Ends. Walk it - any two stops are free.
The plate
Collected on site
Beacon Street just west of Bowdoin Street, below the State House east wing
Directions
The plinth quotes her: 'My life not availeth me in comparison to the liberty of the truth.'
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
Argue about it
Was Mary Dyer hanged on the Common, or a mile south on the Neck?
Both sides, with their sources, are on the story card in the app.
In these collections: Wrong Signs, Crime Scenes
Near Park Street · Near Bowdoin · Near Downtown Crossing · Near Government Center · Near State · Near Boylston
Sources (5)
- Notes from the Archives: Mary Dyer executed #onthisday in 1660City of Boston Archives · n.d.
- Mary Dyer SculptureClio · n.d.
- Where Were the Quakers Hanged?Michael J. Canavan, Proceedings of the Bostonian Society (annual meeting 1911) · 1911
- Mary DyerWikipedia (lead only; note 70 cites Canavan 1911, pp. 37-49) · accessed 2026-10-10
- Mary Dyer (statue)HMdb.org marker 20925; erected by the Art Commission of the Commonwealth from the legacy of Zenas Ellis · dedicated 1959-07-09