Mary Read and Anne Bonny, 18th Century Pirates

Mary Read and Anne Bonny, 18th Century Pirates

Mary Read (1680/1690-1721) was an English pirate. In male disguise, she joined the British military, proved herself through battle, but she fell in love with a Flemish soldier. When they married, she dressed as a woman for the first time in her life. Upon her husband's early death, Read resumed male dress. In 1720 she joined pirate John "Calico Jack" Rackham and his companion, Anne Bonny. Anne Bonny (1702-1782) was an Irish red-haired beauty and considered a good catch. She married a poor sailor and small-time pirate named James Bonny and the wound up in the Bahamas. She met Calico Jack and became his mistress. In 1720 Rackham and his crew were arrested and brought to trial in Jamaica, where they were sentenced to hang for acts of piracy. The women escaped the noose when they revealed they were both pregnant. Read died in prison in April 1721, but there is no record of burial of her baby. Bonny disappeared from the historical record, presumed to have lived a long life in Colonial America.

Album / Science Source / New York Public Library

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3892 x 2787 px | 31.0 MB

33.0 x 23.6 cm | 13.0 x 9.3 in (300 dpi)