Following the death of her husband, John H. Surratt, Sr., in 1862, Mary Surratt (1823–1865) rented out her husband’s tavern and opened a boarding house on H Street in Washington, D.C. In the early months of 1865, the boarding house was used as the meeting place for the conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, led by John Wilkes Booth. Surratt was questioned by the police following the assassination, and witnesses claimed she had met several times with conspirator Lewis Powell; moreover, the keeper of her late husband’s tavern claimed that on the day of the assassination, she had ordered him to “make ready the shooting irons.” Surratt was arrested soon after and held in military custody. Found guilty of treason, conspiracy, and plotting murder on June 30, 1865, Surratt was sentenced to be “hanged by the neck ’til she be dead.” When the sentence was carried out on July 7, Surratt earned a dubious place in history as the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. Rare manuscript DS, signed “Mary Eug[enia] Surratt” and “John H. Surratt” [Sr.], seven pages on four lightly lined sheets, 8 x 12.5, May 10, 1853. To help pay off a debt to Benjamin L. Jackson and William B. Jackson, doing business as “B L Jackson and brother,” and others in the form of notes, with interest "from the 14 April 1853," John H. Surratt and his wife, Mary Eugene Surratt transfer to Benjamin F. Middleton and Benjamin Beale “two pieces or parcels of land lying and being in the County of Washington in the District of Columbia which are known as part of 'Fox Hall' and the whole of the parcel or tract known as 'Pasture and Gleaning'…and premises with the appurtenances." The Surratts "may use and occupy the said Lands and premises. And upon default by the said John H. Surratt or his assigns in the payment of all of said notes and of the debt of sixty three dollars and twenty three cents for costs of an intended sale…with interest from the periods pertaining to each as already set forth – on or by the first day of January eighteen hundred and fifty four" after which time the land, or part of the land, may be sold by Middleton and Beale. Marginal chip to bottom edge of first sheet (touching one word), a few partial separations along folds (not affecting signed page; separations/holes to one page with archival reinforcement), light handling wear with a hint of subtle toning and soiling, and the signatures just a shade light but fully and easily legible, otherwise fine condition.
This document stems from a complicated land deal that directly led to Mary Surratt and her husband acquiring the aforementioned property on H Street—the location where John Wilkes Booth and other Lincoln conspirators would gather to hatch their evil plan. It was because of that boarding house—and Mary Surratt’s ownership of it that was brought about by these pages—that a link was formed between her and the assassination…a connection that led to her eventual execution (that and the fact that she provided some of the men with whiskey and weapons to aid their escape). It is worth noting that signed material from Surratt is among the scarcest in the hobby, with this believed to be only the second such example known to be available to collectors. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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