http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Surratt.

John Surratt (April 13, 1844 – April 21, 1916) was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy and hanged by the United States Federal Government. She owned the boarding house where Booth and fellow conspirators planned the scheme. John Surratt avoided arrest immediately after the assassination by fleeing the country. He served briefly as a papal zouave before his arrest and extradition. By the time he returned to the United States the statute of limitations had expired on most of the potential charges and he was not convicted.

Early life

John Harrison Surratt, Jr. was born in 1844, to John Surratt, Sr. and Mary (Jenkins) Surratt, in what is today Congress Heights. His christening took place in 1844 at St. Peter's Church, Washington, D.C. In 1861, Surratt was enrolled at St. Charles College. When his father suddenly died in 1862, John Jr. was appointed the postmaster for Surrattsville, Maryland.

Lincoln kidnapping

Surratt served as a Confederate courier and spy and had been carrying dispatches about Union troop movements across the Potomac River for some time. Dr. Samuel Mudd introduced Surratt to John Wilkes Booth on 23 December 1864, and Surratt agreed to help Booth kidnap Abraham Lincoln. The meeting took place at the National Hotel, where Booth lived in Washington, D.C. Booth's plan was to seize Lincoln, take him to Richmond, Virginia, and exchange him for thousands of Confederate prisoners of war. On 17 March 1865, Surratt and Booth, along with with their comrades, waited in ambush for Lincoln's carriage to leave the Campbell General Hospital and return to Washington. However, Lincoln had changed his mind and remained in Washington. Following Lincoln's assassination on 14 April 1865, Surratt denied any involvement with the murder plot, claiming at that time he was in Elmira, New York. Surratt did not take part in the assassination, but he was one of the first people suspected of the attack on Secretary of State William H. Seward. However, it was soon discovered that Lewis Powell had tried to kill Seward.

Hiding

When he learned of the assassination, Surratt fled to Canada. He reached Montreal on 17 April 1865. He then went to St. Liboire, where a Catholic priest, Father Charles Boucher, gave him sanctuary. Surratt remained there while his mother was arrested, tried and hanged for conspiracy.

Surratt left for Europe for safety. Aided by ex-Confederate agents Beverly Tucker and Edwin Lee, Surratt booked passage under an alias and landed at Liverpool in September. He served for a time in the Ninth Company of the Pontifical Zouaves in the Vatican City, using the name John Watson.

An old friend, Henri Beaumont de Sainte-Marie, recognized Surratt and notified Vatican officials and Rufus King, U.S. minister in Rome. On 7 November 1866, John Surratt was arrested and sent to Velletri prison. He escaped and lived with the Garibaldians, who gave him safe passage. Surratt traveled to the Kingdom of Italy, posing as a Canadian citizen named Walters. He booked passage to Alexandria, Egypt, but was arrested there by U.S. officials on 23 November 1866. He was sent home on the Swatara, which delivered John Surratt to the Washington Navy Yard in early 1867.

Trial

Surratt was tried in a civilian court of the State of Maryland, not before a military commission, as his mother and the others had been. A recent Supreme Court decision had declared the trial of civilians before military tribunals to be unconstitutional (Ex Parte Milligan). Judge David Carter presided over Surratt's trial, and Edwards Pierrepont conducted the federal government's case against Surratt. Surratt's lead attorney, Joseph Habersham Bradley, admitted Surratt's part in plotting to kidnap the President, but denied any involvement in the murder plot. After two months of testimony, Surratt was released after a mistrial; eight jurors had voted not guilty, four voted guilty. The statute of limitations on charges other than murder had run out, and Surratt was released on $25,000 bail.

Later life

Surratt became a model citizen. He farmed tobacco, taught at the Rockville Female Academy, gave public lectures, served as treasurer of the Old Bay Line steamship company on Chesapeake Bay, and became a teacher at the St. Joseph Catholic School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1872 he married Mary Victorine Hunter, they had seven children. Surratt retired from the Old Bay Line in 1914.

John Harrison Surratt died of pneumonia in Baltimore in 1916 at the age of 72.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6139

John was a farmer born about 1819 in North Carolina.

1840:

At the time of the Wayne County, TN, 1840 census, John Seratt (Spelled "Surratt") was married to a lady (unknown name), who was between the age of 20 and 30. John was about age 21. Two females under the age of five were living with them at this time, most likely Cyatha P. and Nancy A. Seratt. John Seratt and his family lived next door to Isaac Seratt in Wayne County, TN, in 1840 (it is posible that Isaac Seratt may have been John's brother, as Isaac was close to John's age at that time).

1850:

In the Lawrence County, TN, 1850 census, John Seratt was married to Sabra A. _______, born about 1829 in Tennessee. (Sabra was probably not his wife in 180 as she appears to be too young, i.e., she was supposedly born in 1829 and would only have been 11 years old in 1840, with two children. In the 1850 census, the spelling was Serratt - John was about 31 in 850; Sabra was about 21.

1860:

It is unknown whether Sabra A. Seratt died or if she and John divorced, but John Seratt married Lucy J. Flippo in Wayne County, TN, on July 8, 1858. In the marriage records book, John spelled his name “SURRATT”. Lucy was born about 1835 and was 25 at the time she married John. John was about 41.

In the August 1860 census, John and Lucy J. Seratt lived in Lawrence County, TN. John Anderson Seratt was 14 and still living at home with them. They lived next door to Patrick Flippo (age 39) and his wife, Rebecca, and their children (probably Lucy’s brother). James Flippo (age 26) also lived down the road. This may also have been Lucy’s brother. John was 42 at this time, and Lucy J. was 25.

John Seratt had the following nine children. Apparently Lucy J. was not the mother of any of these children as they were born prior to her marriage to John. (The youngest child was 2 years old at the time Lucy and John married. Sabra A. may have been the mother of some of John’s children, but probably not Cyntha P., Nancy A., James A. or Mary E. Seratt, as she appears to be too young to be their mother.

The nine children are:

1. Cyntha P. Seratt (F) born about 1838

2. Nancy A. Seratt (F) born about 1840 – Nancy married George W. Garner about 10/04/1957 in Wayne County, Tennessee

3. James A. Seratt (M) born about 1842

4. Mary E. A. Seratt (F) born about 1842

5. John Anderson Seratt (M) born 3/9/1845 in Tennessee

6. Sara A. F. Seratt (F) born about 1848 – married Samuel Prater on 6/07/01869 in Wayne County, Tennessee

7. Martha A. Seratt (F) born about 1850 – (appears she married Marcus Matheny on 1/29/1869 in Wayne County TN – this is supposedly the man who married Mary E. A. Seratt in 1865 – perhaps Mary died and he married Martha. Facts are unclear).

8. George H. Seratt (M) born between 1850 and 1853

9. Margaret E. Seratt (F) born about 1858