File:Signage 02 - Mary Surratt House.jpg

English: Signage just south of the Mary Surratt House. Taken at Clinton, Maryland, on January 14, 2012.

Mary Surratt was one of the co-conspirators who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. After fleeing Lincoln's murder, assassin John Wilkes Booth fled here and spent a few hours resting before moving on to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd -- where his broken leg was set, and he fled into Virginia. On June 30, 1865, Surratt was convicted of conspiring to kill President Abraham Lincoln. Along with Louis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David Herold, she was executed by hanging on July 7, 1865.

Mary Jenkins was born in May 1820 or 1823 (sources differ). She married local landowner John Surratt in August 1840. John Surratt purchased 200 acres (81 ha) of farmland near what is now Clinton, Maryland, in 1852, and in 1853 he constructed a tavern and an inn there. In 1854, John built a hotel as an addition to his tavern, and called it Surratt's Hotel. The following year, the area around the hotel became known as Surrattsville.

John Surratt, an alcoholic, died suddenly of a stroke in August 1862. Mary and her son, John Jr., were strong Confederate sympathizers (as were most Marylanders). John Jr. ran a spy ring and Confederate courier service out of this house.

In November 1864, Mary Surratt moved from this home to a townhouse she owned at 541 H Street (now known as 640 H Street NW) in Washington, D.C.

She was convicted of conspiracy largely on the testimony of John Lloyd, the tenant who rented her Surrattsville hotel. Lloyd testified that she visited him on April 11 and again on April 14, asking him to get rifles ready and dropping off binoculars and ammunition. John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln on the evening of April 14, and even paid for Surratt's trip to the hotel earlier that day.

Mary Surratt's guilt is hotly contested to this day. She is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in D.C.