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Anne Bonny

Female Pirate
   

Born: Unknown

Died: 1720

Disclaimer!

I have found roughly fifty gazillion accountings of the lives of Mary Read & Anne Bonny. Apparently the two women are very popular right now, however very few of these accountings agree on basic facts. This information below seemed to be the most consistent with what I have read about Anne Bonny in documents that I could verify accuracy and 'down to earth' research. Any differences, discrepancies, lies, etc. that you find below are really your own problems to work out. And since Mary and Anne never invited me to watch I don't know if they were actually lesbians or not so please stop E-mailing me and asking.


Anne Bonny was one of the two most famous Female Pirates. She sailed on the crew of Calico Jack Rackham. Anne was Calico's lover but she could be counted as nonetheless fearless of any other pirate. She was born in County Cork, daughter of an attorney and his Maid. The lawyer split Ireland in disgrace but found fortune in the Carolinas. There, he amassed a fortune and bought a large plantation.

A ne'er do well pirate/sailor named James Bonny married Anne in an attempt to steal the plantation but Anne's father instead disowned her. James then took Anne to the Bahamas where he turned Stool Pigeon to Woodes Rogers, turning in any sailor he didn't like as a pirate for a handsome reward.

Anne quickly grew to dislike her spineless husband and quickly caught the eye of one Calico Jack, a pirate of some renown. Gov. Rogers had recently passed an amnesty for pirates which left Bonny out of work. The admiration between Anne and Calico was mutual. Calico Jack was a handsome man who knew how to spend money as well as steal it. Anne was a well endowed lass with a fiery spirit and a temper that matched that of any man. (It was rumored that in her youth, she even killed a servant woman with a carving knife because the servant made her angry).

In any event, Calico offered to buy Anne from bonny but Bonny instead took the matter up with Governor Rogers, who said that Anne was to be flogged and returned to her true husband. That night Calico and Anne slipped out in the harbor, stole a sloop and began a life of piracy together.

Anne fought in men's clothing, was an expert with pistol and cutlass and considered as dangerous as any male pirate. She was fearless in battle and often was a member of any boarding party.

In October of 1720 retribution was close at hand. The governor of Jamaica, hearing of Calico's presence sent an armed sloop to intervene and capture the Captain and crew. Calico's Jack ship Revenge, was caught almost entirely by surprise (reports indicate that the crew was likely all but passed out drunk) and much to Anne’s dismay, the pirates fought poorly and were taken far too easily.

Anne and Mary Read were also captured but upon capture confessed their "sex" and pleaded to have their case tried separately, after they gave birth. (Both women were pregnant at the time) both received separate trials from the men but were still sentenced to hang. Mary read escaped the hangman by dying from fever while in jail. Anne however, received several stays of execution before mysteriously vanishing from official records. It is believed that her father, who had contacts in the island, forgave his daughter for her acts and ransomed her back to the Carolinas where she assumed a new name and a new life.

On a side note, just get a glimpse into the kind of character Anne was:
When Calico Jack was granted a special favor to see Anne on the day he was to hang, Anne's reputed words to him were;

"I'm sorry to see you here,
but if you'd have fought like a man you needn't hang like a dog."


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