A true story, as with most of my songs... Mary Dyer was placed on the scaffold with her best friend and her best friend's husband. A noose was placed around her neck, the other two where hanged and Mary was told at the last moment to leave Massachusetts and never come back, to tell other Quakers not to come to Boston. She went to Rode Island for a year, then, returned to confront the laws. When they passed sentence on her, she calmly said, "as thee said before. Truth is my authority, not authority my truth". A few months ago, a Friend was shown a small slip of linen by another Friend in the Brooklyn Meeting. The Friend explained it was a small piece of Mary Dyer's wedding dress, which had been handed down in her family, from the hangman who hanged her... he had become a convinced Quaker after Mary Dyer's courage....

Truth Is My Authority, The Ballad of Mary Dyer

by Lorcan Otway

Dear Friends I pray ye now lay down the comber of discord and thy fears' dark snare
and join me as I muse upon our sister Mary Dyer her story I'll now share
She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can ne'er convince me.

For in the year sixteen and fifty eight in Boston town, we Quakers faced great strife
Friend Mary Dyer would not be moved to abandon God to save her very life

She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can ne'er convince me.

Though thee put thy noose about my neck one time before I'll not heed thy tyrant's cause
For I hearken to that still small voice which compelleth my soul despite thy bloody laws
She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can ne'er convince me.

If thy faith cannot keepsake thy soul absent the scaffold, scourge or pillory
I'll obey my master's gentle voice which called forth all earth and proclaimed eternity


For the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can ne'er convince me.

Though thou forgest Irons for my limbs and buildest jails to entomb my corporal frame
My soul soareth free from all thy chains and a child of light I'll be and will remain
She said, the Truth is my authority, truth is my authority,
and authority is not the truth and thy fearful threats can ne'er convince me.

They hanged her for her bravery, her unbroken faith and unbending dignity
So I'd have thee weigh thy every cause by the light of her courage and her certainty

Let the Truth be thy authority, truth be thy authority,
for authority is not the truth and all fearful threats let ne'er convince thee.