Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt
(1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865)
Mary Surratt was executed by the U.S. government for her
role as a conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
Surratt, who owned a tavern in Surrattsville (now Clinton),
Maryland, had to convert her row house in Washington, D.C.,
into a boardinghouse as a result of financial difficulties.
Located a few blocks from Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln
was murdered, this house served as the place where a
group of Confederate supporters, including John Wilkes
Booth, conspired to assassinate the president. It was
Surratt’s association with Booth that ultimately led to her
conviction, though debate continues as to the extent of
her involvement and whether it really warranted so harsh
a sentence.
A newspaper drawing of Surratt receiving comfort
from one of the priests permitted to visit her in her
prison cell.
Aftermath of the execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell,
David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865.
Surratt’s boarding house, c. 1890, little changed
from how it looked during her occupancy.
Surratt’s boarding house, which now houses a restaurant,
is in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
