A Measure of Light (38 page)

–
this page
, “To the keeper of the Prison”—I am indebted to Johan Winsser for this letter. In his manuscript, he states: “Dyer’s writ of incarceration survives,” footnoted “Copeland,
Secret Works
, 1659, 19-20.”

– William Robinson’s words to the court and Endicott’s response exist in many of the records of the period, as do Mary’s words to the court at both of her trials.

– Some Quakers owned slaves until as late as 1784, when Quaker opinion turned decisively against slavery, and Quaker reformers united in condemning it (
The Quakers in America
, Thomas D. Hamm, Columbia University Press, 2003,
this page
). Slave ownership is a dark and shameful irony in the history of Quakerism, deserving of further exploration (see Linda Spalding’s 2012 novel,
The Purchase
). I decided to include the presence of slaves in Mary’s world without exploring the moral dilemma they may (or may not) have caused over a century before the condemnation, leaving the stage clear for Mary’s own considerable personal struggles. However, I believe that Mary would have been opposed to slavery on principle, no matter how well a slave may have been treated, as reflected in the letter that I imagined her writing to Aunt Urith about the Pequot slaves brought into Boston.

Here are some of the books and resources I used (a complete bibliography can be found on my website,
www.powning.com/beth
).

Mary Dyer:

Manuscript biography of Mary Dyer by Johan Winsser, unpublished;
Mary Dyer
, Ruth Talbot Plimpton, Brandon Publishing, 1994;
Mary Dyer of Rhode Island
, Horatio Rogers, General Books, compiled, original pub. date various 17th century

England:

English Costume of the Seventeenth Century
, Iris Brooke, A & C Black, 1934;
English Society, 1580-1680
, Keith Wrightson, Rutgers University Press, 1995;
English Women’s Voices, 1540-1700
, ed. Charlotte F. Otten, Florida International University Press, 1992;
Fire from Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century
, David Underdown, Fontana Press, 1993;
In a Free Republic, Life
in Cromwell’s England
, Alison Plowden, Sutton Publishing, 2006;
John Evelyn’s Diary, 1620-1706
, ed. Philip Francis, Folio Society, London, 1963;
Stuart England
, ed. Blair Worden, Phaidon Press Ltd., 1986;
The English Housewife
, by Gervase Markham, ed. Michael R. Best, McGill-Queen’s University Press, first publication 1615, this edition 2008;
The Letters of Dorothy Osborne
, J. M. Dent and Sons, 1914;
The Seven Deadly Sinnes of London
, Thomas Dekker 1606, ed. H. F. B. Brett-Smith, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1922;
The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution
, Christopher Hill, Peregrine Books, 1988;
Women in England, 1500-1760: A Social History
, Anne Laurence, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995

New England and Puritans:

American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson
, Eve LaPlante, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004;
Child Life in Colonial Times
, Alice Morse Earle, Dover Publications, 2009, originally pub. 1899;
Documentary History of Rhode Island
, Howard M. Chapin, Preston and Rounds Co, 1919;
Everyday Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
, George Francis Dow, The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, 1935;
Home Life in Colonial Days
, Alice Morse Earle, Jonathan Davis Publishers, Inc., 1975, original publication 1898;
John Josselyn, Colonial Traveller
, ed. Paul Lindholdt, University Press of New England, 1988 (original pub 1674);
Puritanism and the Wilderness
, Peter N. Carroll, Columbia University Press, 1969;
Saints and Strangers: New England in British North America
, Joseph A. Conforti, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006;
Slumps, Grunts and Snickerdoodles
, Lila Perl, Clarion Books, 1975;
The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638: A Documentary History
, ed., introduction and notes David D. Hall, Wesleyan University Press, 1968;
The Healer’s Calling: Women and Medicine in Early New England
, Rebecca S. Tannenbaum, Cornell University
Press, 2002;
The Journal of John Winthrop 1630-1649
, ed. Dunn and Yeandle, Belknap Harvard, 1996;
The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop
, Edmund S. Morgan, Little, Brown, and Co., 1958;
The Puritan Family
, Edmund S. Morgan, Harper and Row, 1966;
Wood’s New England’s Prospect
, William Wood, Boston: John Wilson and Son, 1865

Sinnie:

Shetland Life Under Earl Patrick
, Gordon Donaldson, Oliver and Boyd, 1958

Quakers:

A Call from Death to Life
, Marmaduke Stephenson, 1659;
Narrative of the Martyrdom, At Boston: Of William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson (sic), Mary Dyer, and William Leddra, in the Year 1659
, taken from Besse’s account, 1841, reprint Kessinger Publishing;
New England Judged, by the Spirit of the Lord
, George Bishop, General Books, original pub. date 1703;
Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts
, Carla Gardina Pestana, Cambridge University Press, 1991;
The Beginnings of Quakerism
, William C. Braithwaite, Macmillan and Co., 1923;
The Journal of George Fox
, ed. Rufus Jones, Friends United Press, 1976;
The Quakers in the American Colonies
, Rufus Jones, Norton Library, 1966

Other:

The Oxford Annotated Bible
, Oxford University Press, 1977

Thanks to Mac Griswold, Director of Archival Research, Sylvester Manor Project, for generous sharing of her own research, for answering questions, and for giving me ideas for materials and sources.

Although Mary Dyer’s visit to Barbados did not make it into the novel, I spent fascinating time there. Thanks to author Larry Gragg (“The Quaker Community on Barbados”) for answering questions; to Pedro Welch at the University of the West Indies; and to archivists at the Barbados National Archives for pulling and photocopying files.

Thanks to Brian Smith, archivist, Shetland Museum Archives; to Liz Francis, Library Assistant, Massachusetts Historical Society; and to Christopher Densmore, Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College.

Most of my questions about this period were answered by historians who have spent lifetimes making sense of the past’s leavings. I am grateful to the authors of the many books and on-line materials I used, too many to list here.

Huge thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts; a Creative Writing Grant from its Professional Writers Program facilitated the writing of this novel. Thanks to ArtsNB for a generous travel grant. And thanks to the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Leighton Artist’s Colony—the first draft of this novel was completed in the Cardinal Studio.

Heartfelt thanks to all those readers who wrote to me during the years I was researching and creating this novel, telling me they were eagerly awaiting my next book. Their faith and enthusiasm kept me going.

Thanks to Ann Patty for her perceptive reading and keen editorial eye.

Thanks to all those at Knopf Canada who worked on
A Measure of Light:
Anne Collins, Marion Garner, Deirdre Molina, Nicola Makoway, Lindsey Reeder, Leah Springate and Five Seventeen.

Thanks to copy editor Angelika Glover and proofreader Doris Cowan for their careful work.

To my most wonderful agent, Jackie Kaiser, thanks for believing in the story from the beginning, for insightful critiques, for endless encouragement, for friendship, advice and tireless advocacy.

To my editor, Craig Pyette, who paid meticulous attention to the smallest detail as well as the largest concept and understood the book in all its facets. Deepest thanks and gratitude for making me a better writer and for being the best possible companion on this voyage.

My most profound gratitude goes to Johan Winsser, whom I discovered online at the very beginning of this project. I found a man with a passion for Mary Dyer, who, in writing her biography, has swept the crannies of history for any gleanings about this mysterious woman. He shared his research, his sources and his insights. He answered every question with deep attention and sent me fascinating ancillary tidbits. For his gracious sharing, his generosity, his fact-checking, his dedication to the truth, and his belief in my novel, I am profoundly grateful.

Thanks to my astonishing mother, Alison Davis, for letting me ransack her shelves for books on Quakers and Quakerism, for having the wisdom not to allow me to attend Friends Meeting until I was eight years old, and for a lifetime of love and support.

Thanks to my beloved family: Jake and Sara, Maeve and Bridget.

Thanks to my father, Wendell Davis, who didn’t live to see this finished, but who always asked lovingly about my work, even when he couldn’t speak.

And to Peter, my husband and best friend. Thanks and love, always.