Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny & Mary Read

By Rebecca Alexandra Simon

The first full biography of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, 18th-century partners in crime who terrorized the Caribbean: “Excellent . . . informative and interesting.” —Model Shipwrights

Between August and October 1720, two female pirates named Anne Bonny and Mary Read terrorized the Caribbean in and around Jamaica. Despite their short career, they became two of the most notorious pirates during the height of the eighteenth-century Golden Age of Piracy.

In a world dominated by men, they became infamous for their bravery, cruelty, and unwavering determination to escape the social constraints placed on women during that time. But despite their notoriety, mystery shrouds their lives before they became pirates. Their biographies were recorded in Captain Charles Johnson’s 1724 book, A General History of the Pyrates, depicting the two as illegitimate women raised by men who, against insurmountable odds, crossed paths in Nassau and became pirates together. But how much is fact versus fiction?

This first full-length biography about Anne Bonny and Mary Read explores their intriguing backgrounds while examining the social context of women in their lifetime and their legacy in popular culture, which exists to the present day. Using A General History of the Pyrates, early modern legal documents relating to women, their recorded public trial in The Tryal of Jack Rackham and Other Pyrates, newspapers, and new research, this book unravels the mysteries and legends surrounding their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jun 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781526791313

Book preview

Pirate Queens

Pirate Queens

The Lives of Anne Bonny

& Mary Read

Rebecca Alexandra Simon

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Pen & Sword History

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire – Philadelphia

Copyright © Rebecca Alexandra Simon 2022

ISBN 978 1 52679 130 6

eISBN 978 1 52679 131 3

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52679 131 3

The right of Rebecca Alexandra Simon to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Dedication

Dedicated to all of the forgotten women

who forged their own lives on land and sea.

Contents

Prologue: Pirate Queens in History

Introduction

Chapter 1The Lawyer and the Maid

Chapter 2Anne Bonny, a Not-So-Southern Lady

Chapter 3The Widow and the Bastard

Chapter 4Mary Read, the Soldier

Chapter 5Anne Bonny, the Pirate

Chapter 6Pirate Queens of the Caribbean

Chapter 7The Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Chapter 8Women’s Attraction to Piracy

Chapter 9Conclusion

Appendix I: An Act for Suppressing Pirates in West Indies (1717)

Appendix II: By His Excellency Woodes Rogers, Governour of New-Providence, a Proclamation, 1720

Appendix III: Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Vol. 33 (1720–1721)

Appendix IV: The Boston Gazette

Appendix V: The Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Prologue

Pirate Queens in History

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were not the only female pirates to make waves in the maritime world. In fact, female pirates were active ever since the ancient period, and yet they were the ones who would be amongst the most famous pirates of all time. But before we examine their lives, we must take a look at those who came before them.

The first known female pirate was Queen Artemisia I (r.484–460 BCE) of Halicarnassus from the ancient Greek period, born sometime during the fifth century. In 500 BCE she married the king of Halicarnassus and had one son. Shortly after his birth, her husband died and Artemisia assumed the throne, and soon waged numerous wars against rival city-states throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Her success as a pirate is thanks to her privileged status as a queen. She consulted with numerous councils about the best methods when going into war and how to wage attacks.

Ancient Mediterranean piracy was quite different from eighteenth-century piracy. Ancient pirates raided both land and sea as a form of intertribal warfare. Their prowess earned them respect rather than fear and so they were accepted as legitimate mariners in most Mediterranean areas.

Artemisia’s birthplaced, Caria in southwestern Anatolia, was taken over by the Persians so she had no choice but to sail with them to attack Greek ships. However, she managed to defy these conquerors by turning around and raiding the Persian ships. Artemisia had numerous successes attacking rival city-states and Persian areas, but her fate is a mystery. It is possible that she decided to retire quietly. Another theory is that she fell in love with another man who rejected her. Either way, she eventually died by suicide.¹

The only sources written about her life are Herodotus’s Histories and Polyaenus’s Strategems of War. Ancient Greek culture did not have a favourable view of women, so their works painted her in a vicious light as a power-hungry woman set out to destroy anyone in her path. Therefore, we must take her history with a grain of salt. In the end her exploits cursed her reputation in history and the writings claim that she would never receive any love or respect again. Thanks to the Ancient Greek societal prejudices against women.

Approximately 300 years later another female pirate emerged: Teuta of Illyria (r. 231–227 BCE) whose history was captured in Polybios’s Histories. Similar to Artemisia, Teuta married a king, Agron of Illyria, who died right after their marriage. Teuta took over and ruled as regent for her young stepson. Her goal: to expand Illyria’s borders through raiding and plundering on both land and sea. She gave sailors passes to act as pirates and attack rival ships at will. Teuta sailed on several of her own ships and took an active part in numerous raids on rival city-states throughout the Mediterranean. Word spread about her expansionist goals and she became known as the ‘Terror of the Adriatic’. She intended to expand Illyria’s borders all the way to Rome. The Romans considered her to be merely a nuisance until she conquered the Greek west coast, opening up the way for her to sail freely towards Rome. The Romans had no choice but to declare war. By then, the Illyrians no longer supported the wars against other city-states so Teuta found herself without allies. Her own governor, Demetrius, refused to support her and betrayed her to the Romans. In a desperate move to save herself, Teuta promised to return Rome’s hostages. Despite her acquiescence, the Roman fleet pursued her until she was trapped and forced to surrender. Here Polybious’s account of Teuta’s history ends and no one knows what happened to her for the rest of her life.

Polybios wrote from a Roman perspective, which was very anti-Greek and did not favour women at all. He described Teuta as a volatile woman out for blood with the intent to destroy Rome. Polybios wrote with the intention to warn women about the follies of attempting to take any power.²

One thousand years later another pirate queen emerged, Princess Awilda of Scandinavia. Her birthdate has never been listed, but it is estimated that she lived during the fifth century. Her story comes from three sources: the Danish writer Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum (a twelfth-century sixteen-volume anthology of Danish history, poetry and mythology), the sixteenth-century History of the Northern Peoples by Olaus Magnus, and in Charles Elms’s work The Pirates Own Book, published in 1837.

According to Grammaticus, Awilda was the daughter of Siward, king of the Goths, who intended to marry her off to Prince Alf of Denmark. Awilda was so against the marriage that she and several of her maids disguised themselves as men and went to sea to escape. There are several theories as to why she rejected Prince Alfred: one is that she found him physically unattractive; another theory is that he wanted to consummate their engagement before their marriage; and, alternatively, her mother may have convinced her not to marry the man. Shortly after they set out at sea, Awilda and her maids were captured by pirates. Instead of taking her hostage, they were so impressed with her regal air that they elected her as their new captain.

In the meantime Prince Alf sent a fleet after her, which culminated in a major battle in the Gulf of Finland. Alf boarded Awilda’s ship, kidnapped her and forced her to leave with him for Denmark. The story goes that she was so impressed by his ruthlessness that she ended up marrying him and became queen of Denmark.³ While the writings suggest she willingly became queen, she may have been taken against her will.

A millennia later, in the sixteenth century, a woman named Sayyida al Hurra emerged as queen regent of the Moroccan coast and as a powerful pirate leader. Born in approximately 1485 in Spain, she and her Muslim family were forced to flee during the Reconquista (a brutal war between Muslims and Catholics) and they settled in Morocco. In 1515, she married a powerful ruler of the city of Téoutan, who, like Teuta’s husband, died right after their marriage. Sayyida took his title and proclaimed herself the new ruler.

The only historical sources of her account are from Spain and Portugal, which depict her as a Moorish enemy and ruthless woman who commanded pirates intent on destroying Spain. It is unknown if she actually sailed with the pirates, but they raided at sea and on land on her orders. She successfully commanded Morocco’s Mediterranean coast for the next thirty years, but in 1542 she was mysteriously dethroned, signifying yet another defeat.

Finally, the most significant female pirate to rule the seas before Anne Bonny and Mary Read’s reign was the Irish pirate leader Grace O’Malley who operated off the west coast of Ireland. Anne, who was born and raised in Ireland until she was ten years old, grew up hearing stories about her and was likely inspired by Grace’s success.

Like the women before her, Grace (born in 1530) came from a long line of Irish chieftains who ruled Connaught. Her family had castles on Clare Island with a fleet of ships for fishing, trading and pirate raids against English ships. In 1546 Grace married a chieftain named Donal O’Flaherty and moved to his castle at Bunowen, about thirty miles south from her home. They had three children, but tragedy came when her husband was brutally murdered in a revenge attack after several raids.

Grace moved herself and her sons back home and sought her own revenge by taking over the O’Malley fleet of twenty-two ships. She quickly gained a reputation as a fearless captain. In 1566 she remarried another local chieftain, Richard Burke, and moved to Rockfleet Castle in County Mayo, which became the base of her operations.⁴

The English governor of Galway, Sir Edward Fitton, sent an expedition after her, commanded by Captain William Martin, who ended up having to retreat after Grace brutally attacked him with her forces. But then her luck began to run out. In 1577 she was captured in a raid and imprisoned in Limerick for eighteen months, during which time her husband passed away. After she was freed, she could not inherit her husband’s lands, so she launched more raids against Galway, which was now governed by Sir Richard Bingham. He managed to capture her in Clew Bay and took her three sons hostage.

Abandoned by her fellow chieftains and unable to bear the prospect of losing her children, Grace had no choice but to go to England and appeal to Queen Elizabeth I for their release. The queen agreed to see her, but first Grace was subjected to eighteen questions about her family, history, actions as a pirate and her motives. Elizabeth was so impressed by Grace’s eloquent responses and leadership as a pirate that she agreed to have her sons released. In exchange, Grace had to sail for Elizabeth when called upon.⁵

* * *

All of the above-mentioned women had one thing in common: they were all married to powerful men and placed in leadership roles. Yet, unlike Anne and Mary, they were all virtually forgotten in history (with the exception of Grace O’Malley). The reason for this is that their stories were written by either men or enemies who deliberately painted them in a negative light, thereby reducing their history into legend and myth.

So why did Anne and Mary escape obscurity? They only sailed for two months and were not from powerful families, nor were they married to exceptional men. The answer is simple: they were alive and active in the right place at the right time. The printing industry was widespread and readily available for consumption all over the Americas and Britain. Newspapers published their exploits and people read the articles throughout the British-American colonies. Pirate trial transcripts were lucrative publications that sold widely thanks to a growing fascination with pirates. The Trial of Jack Rackham and Other Pirates, published in London in 1721, included their names in the description, noting the exceptional women who joined a male-dominated, violent world and were as ruthless as any other pirate. The other main reason is that just three years later, in 1724, Captain Charles Johnson published A General History of the Pyrates, a collection of pirate biographies which detailed their lives. The book’s title page and subsequent advertisements all highlighted the inclusion of ‘female pirates’ with the intention of grabbing an audience: and it worked. This time their stories were meant to excite readers, not destroy their reputations. The result is their permanent place in history and public memory.

Introduction

In November 2020 a statue of two female ‘pirate lovers whose story was ignored by male historians’ was erected in Wapping, East London. The chosen location was on the bank of the Thames in front of a replica of a scaffold and noose, once known as Execution Dock, where condemned pirates met their death. The statue, designed by sculptor Amanda Cotton, was intended to celebrate two female pirates who broke gender boundaries in the piratical world.¹

These two female pirates were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two of the most infamous and fearsome pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy, a period that lasted between approximately 1670 and 1730. They were only pirates for two months – between August and October 1720 – but during that time they earned their well-deserved notoriety. They swore and fought mercilessly with pistols and cutlasses in a world where women should have been confined to the home, either as a wife and mother or in domestic servitude. Instead, they used their femininity to defeat their foes. Their hair flowed long and blew in the wind, and they opened their shirts to bear their breasts to intimidate and shock their victims.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were more than just pirates. They spent their lives struggling against the social shackles of womanhood during a time when there were few opportunities for female agency. Whether or not it was their intention, their lives became the subject of fascination, consternation and awe for men and women alike. According to the feminist writer, Jo Stanley, the idea of female pirates was no less than a social outrage and the embodiment of women’s terrifying power. Even worse, the woman pirates’ wickedness was responsible for arousing sexual desire in the men they abhorred.² But with sexual desire came fear of women as castrators;³ if they could hold such a power over men, they could destroy them. They were able to seduce men to be able to gain their own power and agency; their escape from the gallows was thanks to their pregnancies, taking the man’s seed to give them back their own control.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were alive during the height of what is referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy. Piratical activity ebbed and flowed during three different periods, referred to as ‘pirate rounds’, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first has been identified as the years between 1670 and 1680, when French pirates, known as buccaneers, roamed the seas throughout the West Indies. The second round took place in the Indian Ocean during the 1690s, which included the activities of British pirates such as Captains Henry Avery and William Kidd, who almost destroyed Britain’s trade with India. The third time period – the one with which most people are familiar – was between 1716 and approximately 1730, known as the ‘War on Piracy’. This is the period in which we meet the most infamous pirates in history: Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Charles Vane and Jack Rackham, who was both Anne’s and Mary Read’s pirate captain, just to name a few. The War on Piracy was a conflict in which the British government was determined to exterminate all pirates. They faced ‘a clique of 20–30 pirate commodores and a few thousand crewmen’ who all knew each other.⁴ Jack Rackham sailed under Charles Vane (the most vicious pirate of the time) and then added Mary to his crew after he and Anne were married and set out to sea as pirates.

The third round of the Golden Age of Piracy had the largest number of organised bands of pirates. According to the historian Marcus Rediker, records show that between 1,800 and 2,400 pirates sailed in the Atlantic between 1716 and 1718 and 1,500 to 2,000 between 1719 and 1722. He estimates that in total, anywhere between 4,500 and 5,000 ‘men went, as they called it, upon the account’.⁵ This number does not account for the women who sailed with pirates during the height of their activity. Anne Bonny and Mary Read are the two most well-known female pirates of the age, but their lives represent the countless number of women who sailed the seas and were lost to history.

The life of a pirate averaged just two years unless they were fortunate to retire or somehow leave the profession. The Royal Navy increased its power over the first two decades of the eighteenth century. More and more former privateers, legally sanctioned mercenaries charged to rob enemy ships under a contract called a letter of marque, or even pirates themselves were taking jobs as pirate hunters. Pirates were captured en masse, which guaranteed them death by public hanging in a crowded arena. The 1720s were the riskiest years to be a pirate.

So why would two women, who had almost no prospects at sea and were confined to strict social roles, take the plunge into the uncertainty of this life knowing that their capture meant certain death? The answer is quite simple. Pirates were seen as agents of social mobility during a time in which it was nearly impossible to improve one’s position in society. If a person was born poor they would stay poor, and so would future generations. Likewise, if one was born into wealth and status, that would also be inherited. Pirates, however, came from all social classes with various levels of education. Their ships were independent, egalitarian societies where they could vote on their captains and benefit from equal distribution of wealth, unlike naval and merchant ships. This allowed many to become quite wealthy, or at least financially comfortable, if they survived their career as a pirate. They were not beholden to specific countries and governments and considered themselves to be their own sovereign nations. Pirates actively rebelled against the rigid social norms by blaspheming, swearing, cursing, drinking excessively and partying, robbery, and entering into violent encounters without the fear of death. This type of life would seem free to anyone desperate to leave the chains of their own situation.⁶

The temptation of piracy to women,