This female pirate was a
native of Cork. Her father was an attorney,
and, by his activity in business, rose to
considerable respectability in that place.
Anne was the fruit of an unlawful connexion
with his own servant maid, with whom he
afterwards eloped to America, leaving his
own affectionate and lawful wife. He settled
at Carolina, and for some time followed his
own profession; but soon commenced merchant,
and was so successful as to purchase a
considerable plantation. There he lived with
his servant in the character of his wife;
but she dying, his daughter Anne
superintended the domestic affairs of her
father.
During her residence with her parent she
was supposed to have a considerable fortune,
and was accordingly addressed by young men
of respectable situations in life. It
happened with Anne, however, as with many
others of her youth and sex, that her
feelings, and not her interest, determined
her choice of a husband. She married a young
sailor without a shilling. The avaricious
father was so enraged, that, deaf to the
feelings of a parent, he turned his own
child out of doors. Upon this cruel usage,
and the disappointment of her fortune, Anne
and her husband sailed for the island of
Providence, in the hope of gaining
employment.
Acting a part very different from that of
Mary Read, Anne's affections were soon
estranged from her husband by Captain Rackam;
and eloping with him, she went to sea in
men's clothes. Proving with child, the
captain put her on shore, and entrusted her
to the care of some friends until her
recovery, when she again accompanied him in
his expeditions.
Upon the king's proclamation offering a
pardon to all pirates, he surrendered, and
went into the privateering business, as we
have related before: he, however, soon
embraced an opportunity to return to his
favorite employment. In all his piratical
exploits Anne accompanied him; and, as we
have already recorded, displayed such
courage and intrepidity, that she, along
with Mary Read and a seaman, were the last
three who remained on board when the vessel
was taken.
Anne was known to many of the planters in
Jamaica, who remembered to have seen her in
her father's house, and they were disposed
to intercede in her behalf. Her unprincipled
conduct, in leaving her own husband and
forming an illicit connexion with Rackam,
tended, however, to render her friends less
active. By a special favor, Rackam was
permitted to visit her the day before he was
executed; but, instead of condoling with him
on account of his sad fate, she only
observed, that she was sorry to see him
there, but if he had fought like a man he
needed not have been hanged like a dog.
Being with child, she remained in prison
until her recovery, was reprieved from time
to time, and though we cannot communicate to
our readers any particulars of her future
life, or the manner of her death, yet it is
certain that she was not executed. |
