Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Pretty Good Pirates
Anne Bonny and Mary Read
The interesting thing about the life of Anne Bonny and Mary Read is that while we know a good deal about them, we don’t know how much is true or if any of it even is true. What we know comes from the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates written by Captain Charles Johnson in 1724.
The problem with that is it’s widely believed Charles Johnson was a pen name for Daniel Defoe who also wrote fictional stories such as Robinson Caruso. Sure, he wrote non-fiction as well and some of the claims he makes in A General History of Pyrates are corroborated by legal documents but, much of what is written has no source and comes from what essentially is, “I heard from someone who says they were there…”.
So there are a few variations to Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s stories but don’t worry I’ll include those variations since it adds to their legends.
Recap
Last we left our pirate series, I told you about the early pirating adventures of a pretty bad pirate, Calico Jack.
Just in case you haven’t read that article here’s a quick rundown of the pertinent information:
Pirate Jack Rackham (aka Calico Jack) was once under the command of Charles Vane but after Vane displayed cowardice, Jack called for a vote to remove Vane from command
Once Vane was removed, Jack became Captain Calico Jack
Jack and his crew eventually lost everything and accepted a pardon from Governor Woodes Roger as long as they left the pirate life behind
While in a bar in New Providence, Jack met Anne Bonny after she beat the crap out of a man harassing her
Related Article: Calico Jack; A Pretty Bad Pirate
The Early Life of Anne Bonny
Near Cork, Ireland, around 1698 lawyer William Cormac controversially welcomed a new child, Anne Cormac. Why was this a controversy? Well because William Cormac’s wife wasn’t the mother. The mother was a maid who worked in the home.
Unsurprisingly William separated from his wife after the scandal became public. This tarnished his name causing him to lose his business but he believed he could make a fresh start in Charleston, South Carolina with his new wife and child.
In a variation to the story, despite William’s wife separating from him after Anne’s birth, their local town didn’t know why the separation happened. As Anne grew, William wanted her around and chose to dress her up as a boy pretending she was a distant relative which doesn’t make sense. Why dress her up as a boy if you’re just going to state she’s a relative?
Regardless, rumors spread possibly because it was a stupid lie and people eventually caught on that Anne was William’s daughter causing his reputation to be tarnished. No matter which variation you prefer, Anne Bonny still ends up in Charleston, South Carolina.
But Anne’s story has a few legends before she became a pirate. According to some stories, Anne had a pretty big temper and it was put on display when she stabbed a young maid in her home when she was 13. In another situation she beat a man who attempted to assault her into a coma, that one seems fair.
When Anne turned 16, William wanted her to find a man to settle down with and even chose some rich suitors for her but, being independent, Anne wanted to make her own choices. No word if any of the suitors were afraid of being stabbed.
Marriage
We’ve mentioned in a previous article how pirates were commonplace in Charleston, South Carolina so it’s not a surprise Anne met one she fell in love with, a sailor and part-time pirate, James Bonny.
As James was poor and a pirate, William didn’t approve of the relationship but that didn’t stop Anne from marrying James and becoming Anne Bonny. She was promptly disowned by her father. Around 1718 James and Anne moved to New Providence in the Bahamas, a place that was known as the Republic of Pirates.
But, that same year Governor Woodes Roger was sent to New Providence by King George to clear up the pirate problem. And, he was doing a pretty good job at it. One way he was so efficient at arresting the pirates was by using and paying informants to rat out pirates. This was a job the poor James Bonny gladly assisted with.
Meanwhile, the longer Anne Bonny lived in New Providence the more friends she made and these friends were also pirates.
Becoming a Pirate
According to some stories while trying to enjoy a night out at a tavern Anne Bonny was harassed by one of the patrons. Unfortunately for the man, he had no idea Anne Bonny wasn’t the type to just ignore the harassment and she proceeded to beat him with a chair.
This was witnessed by another patron, former pirate captain, Calico Jack, now going by his regular name Jack Rackham. Jack immediately fell in love with Anne and the two started an affair. When Jack found out Anne was married, he actually went to James Bonny and offered him money to divorce Anne, but James turned him down.
Around this time Anne also found out about James’s little side business of ratting out pirates and wanted out of the marriage. This gave Jack an idea for a way out, piracy. In August of 1719, Jack gathered a crew, put on his pirate hat, reclaimed the name Captain Calico Jack, and along with Anne Bonny, they stole a ship, setting sail for the horizon.
Anne Bonny
Now a pirate, Anne Bonny would wear men’s clothing to hide her identity while running operations or during battles. Some variations to her story claim she always wore men’s clothing as women weren’t allowed on pirate ships and the crew weren’t aware she was a woman.
Other stories claim the crew knew who she was and she didn’t bother wearing men’s clothing on board as everyone knew she was Calico Jack’s partner.
But among those that agreed to join Calico Jack and Anne Bonny in their pirate adventures was another woman who was also dressed as a man, Mary Read.
Early Life of Mary Read
Mary Read was born around 1690 in Plymouth, England to a recently widowed mother. Some versions of her story say she had an older brother who was from her mother’s first marriage but he died when he was still young. The boy’s paternal grandmother didn’t know he had died and Mary’s mom refused to tell her since the grandmother was sending money to help raise the boy.
In order to keep up the lie that her brother hadn’t died, Mary’s mother dressed her up as a boy for most of her childhood. As Mary grew, she preferred boy’s clothing and just wore those clothes on a daily basis, even going along pretending she was a boy.
Eventually, under the guise of being a man, Mary joined the British military and even fought in the War of the Spanish Succession. While in the Netherlands she met and fell in love with a sailor, marrying him after revealing her secret.
The two then opened a hotel and Mary went back to wearing women’s clothing. Unfortunately, Mary’s husband died several months later and she was forced to close the hotel. She then went back to wearing men’s clothing and rejoined the military.
There are a few variations to what happens next:
After joining the military, she left to become a sailor, and on one excursion to the Caribbean, the ship she was on was attacked by none other than Captain Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny. As was customary at the time, Captain Jack offered any of the sailors on the ship a spot on his crew, Mary Read, still dressed as a man, took the offer.
Mary Read didn’t rejoin the military and took a boat to the West Indies to restart her life but that ship was attacked by Captain Jack and the same offer was made
After getting on a ship to the West Indies her ship wasn’t attacked by Captain Jack but by another group of pirates. She then joined the pirate crew but when the pardon was offered in 1718, she took the pardon given by Woodes Roger. When Jack returned to pirating with Anne, Mary was one of the crews on the ship they stole and agreed to join the crew.
After taking the pardon from Woodes Roger, Mary agreed to help Woodes Roger as an informant. While out on a ship looking for pirates, Mary’s ship was attacked by Captain Jack and Anne and this is where she agreed to join the crew.
No one is entirely sure which of the above version of events happened but we do know by September 1719 Mary Read had joined Captain Jack’s crew and no one knew she was a woman.
Mary Read
A Trio of Pirates
With his new crew Captain Calico Jack was reportedly very successful in stealing from merchant vessels and getting other pirates to join him. Mary and Anne’s participation was considered to be a huge part of that success. The two were ruthless and never backed down from a fight.
At one point during their excursions some stories say Anne Bonny became pregnant and during the final half of her pregnancy, she was dropped off in Cuba to have the baby. She was then picked back up sometime after. No one knows what happened to the baby, if there even was one to begin with.
It’s also not known when exactly Mary revealed to Anne she was a woman but the two became fast friends and spent a lot of time together, enough to make Captain Jack jealous. According to some stories, Jack only found out Mary was a woman when he went to kill her out of jealousy and she revealed she was a woman. But, it’s not really known when Jack found out.
Some stories say after the secret was out the three began a relationship with each other, some say Anne had separate relationships with both Mary and Jack, and other stories say Mary had a relationship with another of the crew.
Regardless the three were considered equals and led many battles during their first year as pirates becoming feared across the Caribbean.
Last Stand
Despite some stories saying no one knew Mary and sometimes Anne were actually women, the secret was out of the bag by 1720 when Governor Woodes Roger announced a proclamation to hunt down pirate Captain Jack and named Mary Read and Anne Bonny as fellow pirates.
Pirate hunter Jonathan Barnett took up the challenge and set sail following clues around the Caribbean for the crew. In October of 1720, he found his target.
Around midnight, after another successful raid, Mary and Anne were on deck when they spotted a ship approaching them. They quickly realized the ship belong to the pirate hunter and they prepared to fight, unfortunately, most of the crew were below deck drunk, asleep, or both.
Captain Jack fired at the ship as if to say ‘we’re ready for a fight’ but when the ship fired back and destroyed part of Jack’s ship, Jack responded with, ‘hey now, let’s talk about this.’
Outmanned and outgunned, Jack called for his crew to surrender but Anne Bonny and Mary Read refused and chose to fight the approaching men. Some stories say there was another of Jack’s crew who also fought alongside the women but most tales say it was just the two.
At one point, according to some legends, Mary called down to the crew yelling,
“If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!”
When the men continued to cower below deck, Mary fired a shot into the dark killing one of her own crew.
Eventually, after a quick battle, since it was an entire pirate hunting crew against just two pirates, Captain Jack and his entire crew were arrested.
Trials and Executions
The crew were returned to New Providence and put on trial. Pardon was off the table and the only way out for the pirates was death if found guilty. Captain Calico Jack was found guilty and sentenced to hang on November 18th.
As a final request, he asked to see Anne Bonny one last time but the meeting wasn’t as happy as he hoped. According to some stories, Anne looked at him in disgust and told him,
“If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hanged like a dog.”
Mary and Anne were then put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to hang as well. But it turns out there is a way to avoid being executed immediately, being pregnant. Both Mary and Anne claimed to be pregnant and their executions were stayed temporarily.
On November 18th Captain Jack was hanged and his lifeless body was displayed as a warning to all would-be pirates. Mary Read died several months later in prison from a fever. But Anne Bonny, well, no one is entirely sure what happened to her.
Some stories say she escaped prison and lived out the rest of her life under a different name never returning to piracy again. Another story claims she also died in prison.
But the most common version states her father used his influence to get her out of jail where she returned to Charleston and had 8 children, living a long life in peaceful solitude.
And that’s the story of Captain Calico Jack, Pirate Mary Read, and Pirate Anne Bonny, three legendary pirates with stories that may be more legend than fact.
