Mary Elizabeth Jenkins married John Harrison Surrat. In 1851 they built a new home and tavern which was also a post office, safe house for the Confederate underground, polling place and inn. After John's death, Mary moved into a townhouse in Washington DC and rented the tavern to an ex-policeman John Lloyd who would later testify against her in the conspiracy trial of Lincoln's assassination. Mary turned the townhouse into a boarding house where her son introduced her to John Wilkes Booth and other conspirators. Mary and 3 conspirators were found guilty in the assassination plot of President Lincoln and sentenced to death making Mary the first woman executed by the U.S. Government.