Mary Dyer (Mary) hanged on Boston Common for being a Quaker.

A follower of Anne Hutchinson, Dyer had been banished from Boston in 1635, returned, and was again banished, but again returned, “persuaded that her death was necessary.” As she is led to the gallows, a band of drummers play to drown out her exhortations, and there are so many spectators that, afterwards, the crowd of returning to the North End collapses the drawbridge over Mill Creek. Due to her religious beliefs, Dyer is denied a normal burial and instead her ashes are scattered in the soil of Boston Common. A statue of Dyer is installed on the west lawn of the State House in 1959.*