Anne Bonny (disappeared after 28 November 1720) was a

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

who served under John Rackham. Amongst the few recorded female pirates in the

Golden Age of Piracy The Golden Age of Piracy was the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Histories of piracy often subdivide the Golden Age of Piracy into th ...

, she has become one of the most recognized pirates of the era, as well as in the history of piracy in general. Much of Bonny's background is unknown. The first biography of Bonny comes from

Captain Charles Johnson Captain Charles Johnson was the British author of the 1724 book ''A General History of the Pyrates, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates'', whose identity remains a mystery. No record exists of a captain b ...

's 1724 book ''

A General History of the Pyrates ''A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates'', or simply ''A General History of the Pyrates'', is a 1724 book published in Britain containing biographies of contemporary pirates,Carolina, where she married a sailor. Though Johnson's version of events has become generally accepted, there is little evidence to support them. At an unknown date, Bonny travelled to the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

where she became acquainted with the pirate John Rackham. Bonny would join Rackham's crew, alongside another female pirate, Mary Read, and helped steal the sloop ''William'' in August 1720. Rackham and his crew would carry out a number of attacks on merchant ships in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

until they were captured following a brief naval engagement in October 1720. Rackham, along with all the male crew members, were tried and sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed due to both of them claiming to be pregnant. Read died in jail around mid April 1721, but Bonny's fate is unknown.

Early life

Bonny's date and place of birth are unknown. Nothing definitive is known about her early life. No primary source, including her own trial's transcript, makes mention of her age or nation of origin. No Anne Bonny born in the late 17th century has been found in the baptism records of Ireland. Bonny is not noted to have been a colonist of Nassau prior to it becoming a pirates nest in 1713 under

Benjamin Hornigold Benjamin Hornigold (c. 1680–1719) was an English pirate towards the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. Born in England in the late 17th century, Hornigold began his pirate career in 1713, attacking merchant ships in the Bahamas. He helped to e ...

. Before 22 August 1720, little can be definitively said about Bonny's early life.

Early life according to ''A General History of the Pyrates''

All details concerning Bonny's early life stem from

's ''

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland (; , ) was a dependent territory of Kingdom of England, England and then of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1542 to the end of 1800. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then List of British monarchs ...

. She was the daughter of a servant woman named Mary, and her employer, an unnamed attorney. Later renditions of this story would refer to the attorney as William Cormac and the mother as Peg/Mary Brennan. These are fictional names first written down in John Carlova's 1964 romance novel Mistress of the Seas. This novel has accidentally been quoted as truthful history for many years. The attorney's wife had become ill and was moved to her mother-in-law's home a few miles away to be cared for. Whilst his wife was away for four months, the attorney began an affair with Mary. The attorney's wife discovered the affair following a comical mix up concerning silver spoons. This theatrical misunderstanding began with a tanner Mary knew stealing three silver spoons and hiding them in her bed. Mary called a constable on the man, but they were not found. Upon the wife's return, the tanner told her the entire story about stealing silver spoons, but confessed it was only a joke. The wife found the three silver spoons in Mary's bed as the tanner had claimed. She became suspicious however, the tanner had noted he had hidden the silver spoons days ago. The wife questioned why Mary had not been sleeping in her bed. The wife then assumed her husband had been unfaithful the past four months. The wife stayed in the bed and waited for the attorney, who called for Mary and laid in her bed, confirming the affair. The wife then put the silver spoons back into the bed, and when Mary went to sleep, she found them and hid them in her trunk. The wife later accused Mary of theft and called a constable, who wrongfully arrested her. With the affair exposed, the wife separated from the attorney and moved to a different home. Mary became pregnant from the affair and gave birth to a daughter, Anne, while in prison. After Anne's birth, Mary was let go out of pity. The attorney's mother in law died not long after, leaving a major source of income to be an allowance which his estranged wife gave him out of sympathy. How Johnson was aware of the theft of spoons and the exact nature of Anne's birth, is never revealed. Because everyone in town knew Mary had given birth to a bastard daughter, the attorney raised Anne as a boy, claiming she was the child of a friend. The attorney even hoped to raise Anne as a clerk. The attorney's wife soon found out who the child was, and cut off any allowance she had been giving him. The attorney in response ended the ruse and openly lived with Anne as his daughter, but this scandal damaged his reputation and few locals wished to work with him. The attorney was forced to move elsewhere. The attorney first moved to Cork, but this proved not far enough. The attorney then moved to the

Province of Carolina The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...

, taking along Anne and her mother Mary. At first, the attorney attempted to continue his law career, but eventually became a merchant instead. He proved quite successful as a merchant, earning enough money to buy a large plantation. At an undisclosed period of time, Mary died. Anne Bonny was now grown up. Johnson claims that Bonny possessed a fierce temper, such as supposedly stabbing a maid to death with a knife, a claim he immediately finds groundless. He also says she once beat a man severely for attempting to sleep with her. There is no documented example of an attorney becoming a plantation owner in the Carolinas in the 17th and 18th century. The attorney expected Bonny to marry a good man, instead she married a poor sailor. The attorney was so outraged he threw her out. In the original volume of ''A General History'', the sailor husband is unnamed. In ''A General History'' volume II released in 1728, the sailor is named James Bonny. After being kicked out, Anne and James Bonny moved to Nassau, on

New Providence Island New Providence is the most populous island in The Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. On the eastern side of the island is the national capital city of Nassau; it had a population of 246,329 at the 2010 Census, and a po ...

, known as a sanctuary for pirates. Johnson claims that, after the arrival of Governor

Woodes Rogers Woodes Rogers ( – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer and colonial administrator who served as the List of governors of the Bahamas, governor of the Bahamas from 1718 to 1721 and again from 1728 to 1732. He is remembered ...

in the summer of 1718, James Bonny became a minor officer for the governor after taking a pardon. Anne cared little for James and frequently cheated on him. James Bonny serving Woodes Rogers is highly unlikely, as no James Bonny is noted in Captain Vincent Pearse's list of pirates who took the Kings Pardon. No documentation outside of ''A General History'' even confirms there was a James Bonny, making it possible he is one of Johnson's fictional creations, similar to Captain Misson.

John Rackham and Piracy

upJohn Rackham While in Nassau, Bonny at some point met John Rackham. The nature of his relationship with her is unclear; ''A General History'' claims it was romantic, while her own trial transcript says nothing on the matter. She was likely well acquainted with Rackham by the year 1720, after the

War of the Quadruple Alliance The War of the Quadruple Alliance, 1718 to 1720, was a conflict between Spain and a coalition of Austria, Great Britain, France, and Savoy, joined in 1719 by the Dutch Republic. Most of the fighting took place in Sicily and Spain, with minor engag ...

and two years into the reign of Governor Rogers. In August 1720, Bonny, Rackham, and another woman, Mary Read, together with about a dozen other pirate crewmembers, stole the sloop ''William'' from former pirate and privateer John Ham, then at anchor in Nassau harbor, and put out to sea. The crew spent months in the

attacking merchant ships. Bonny took part in piracy alongside the men, handing out gunpowder to fellow pirates, a job usually referred to as a powder monkey. On 5 September 1720, Governor Rogers put out a proclamation, later published in '' The Boston Gazette'', demanding the arrest of Rackham and his associates. Among those named are Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Boston Gazette Woodes Rogers Proclamation

Boston Gazette Woodes Rogers Proclamation

''A General History'' claims Bonny eventually fell in love with another pirate on board, only to discover it was Mary Read. To abate the jealousy of Rackham, who suspected romantic involvement between the two, Bonny told him that Read was a woman and swore him to secrecy. This is unlikely, since Rogers' proclamation names both women openly. Later drawings of Bonny and Read would emphasise their femininity, although this too likely did not reflect reality. A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas of Jamaica, would describe in detail Bonny and Read's appearance during their trial. She said they "wore men's jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads: and ... each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her." Thomas also recorded that she knew that they were women, "from the largeness of their breasts."

Capture and imprisonment

On 22 October 1720, Rackham and his crew were discovered by a sloop captained by Jonathan Barnet a former privateer. Rackham and his crew briefly resisted, but surrendered soon after the fight began. They were taken to Jamaica where, in groups, they were tried for the crime of piracy. Rackham was tried on 16 November in front of Nicholas Lawes governor of Jamaica. Rackham was quickly found guilty. His execution at

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

was carried out two days later on 18 November. Anne Bonny was tried for piracy alongside Mary Read in

Spanish Town Spanish Town (Jamaican Patois: Spain) is the capital and the largest town in the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of St. Catherine, Jamaica, St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica, Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and Briti ...

on 28 November. Like Rackham, the trial was short and the verdict inevitable. After calling three witnesses and a brief period of discussion, Governor Lawes found Bonny and Read guilty of piracy and sentenced them both to be hanged. With the judgement pronounced, Bonny and Read both " pleaded their bellies", asking for mercy because they were pregnant. A jury of matrons likely granted them a stay of execution until they gave birth, but it is debatable if they were actually pregnant. Read died in prison of unknown causes around April 1721. A burial registry for

Saint Catherine Parish Saint Catherine () is a parish in the south east of Jamaica. It is located in the county of Middlesex, and is one of the island's largest and most economically valued parishes because of its many resources. It includes the first capital of Ja ...

lists her burial on 28 April 1721 as, "Mary Read, Pirate".

Bonny's Fate

There is no record of Bonny's release, and this has fed speculation as to her fate. Johnson writes in ''A General History'' that: "She was continued in Prison, to the Time of her lying in, and afterward reprieved from Time to Time; but what is become of her since we cannot tell; only this we know, that she was not executed". Claims of Bonny being freed by family intervention and moving to the American colonies, dying around the 1780s, are unlikely and appear to originate from John Carlova's '' Mistress of the Seas''. Such claims were later amplified by Tamara Eastman and Constance Bond's 2000 book ''The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read'', which claimed Bonny lived until 1782. The claim rested on "family papers in the collection of descendants," which was later proven to be false. Ann Bonny December 29 1733

A burial register in Spanish Town, where Bonny was tried, lists the burial of an "Ann Bonny" on 29 December 1733. This is notable but not conclusive evidence that Bonny never left Jamaica.

Legacy

Despite a career of only two months, Anne Bonny is among the most famous pirates in recorded history, primarily due to her gender. Within a decade, Bonny-inspired characters were already appearing. The first notable inspiration is Jenny Diver in

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...

's 1729 ballad opera ''Polly''. Despite already appearing in Gay's previous play ''The Beggars Opera'', and being based on the historical Jenny Diver, her characterization in ''Polly'' is blatantly Bonny. In the 19th century, literature such as Charles Ellms' ''Pirates Own Book'' would discuss Bonny at length, often with illustrations. An 1888 cigarette card would depict Bonny as a redhead, a trait that continues to this day despite no evidence supporting it. Swashbuckling cinema would often include a dashing redhaired woman or female pirate companion, occasionally directly naming Bonny. By the 21st century, Bonny has appeared in hundreds of books, movies, stage shows, TV programs, and video games. Almost every female pirate character, is in some form, inspired by Anne Bonny.

Speculation of Bonny's Sexuality

Since the mid 18th century, certain writers have claimed that Anne Bonny was the

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

lover of Mary Read. This was never stated in the trial transcript or newspapers, and only begins to appear after much of Bonny's legend was written, and by highly suspect sources. The first written appearance of this claim is in an unauthorized 1725 reproduction of ''A General History'' titled, ''The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews''. In the passage describing the trial of Bonny and Read, the book briefly says they were lovers. Since ''A General History'' is itself unreliable, this claim cannot be trusted. ''History and Lives'' would be the only book to claim Bonny and Read were lovers for almost a century. A

chapbook A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe. Chapbooks were usually produced cheaply, illustrated with crude woodcuts and printed on a single sheet folded into 8, 1 ...

knock off of ''History and Lives'' would again repeat the claim verbatim in 1813, but discussion of Bonny's sexuality would only really begin in the 20th century. This claim would briefly appear again in 1914, via sexologist

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, Sexology, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate, whose German citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government.David A. Gerstner, ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer ...

's book, ''The Homosexuality of Men and Women''. Much like ''History and Lives'', it contains a mere one sentence claim that Mary Read was a lesbian. The claim that Bonny and Read were lesbians largely entered popular understanding via

radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...

Susan Baker's 1972 article, "Anne Bonny & Mary Read: They Killed Pricks" published in a newspaper run by the lesbian separatist organization, The Furies Collective. This article would inspire writers such as Steve Gooch, which in turn would influence many media depictions. In 2020, a statue of Bonny and Read was unveiled at Execution Dock in

Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...

, London. The statues were created in part for the podcast series Hellcats, which centers on a lesbian relationship between Bonny and Read. The statues themselves are abstract depictions of Bonny and Read, claiming that one emotionally completed the other. It was originally planned for the statues to be permanently placed on

Burgh Island Burgh Island is a tidal island on the coast of South Devon in England near the small seaside village of Bigbury-on-Sea. There are several buildings on the island, the largest being the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel. The other buildings are thre ...

in south

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, but these plans were withdrawn after complaints of glamorizing piracy, and because Bonny and Read have no association with the island. The statues were eventually accepted by Lewes F.C. Ultimately, it is impossible to determine if Anne Bonny was Mary Read's lover. Neither woman left any primary sources behind, and sources such as the trial transcript make no mention of their personal lives.

In popular culture

* Jean Peters portrays a character based on Anne Bonny called Captain Anne Providence in the 1951 film '' Anne of the Indies'', itself based on a 1947 article by Herbert Ravenel Sass. * Hope Emerson portrays Bonny in the film " Double Crossbones" (1951). * Bonny was portrayed by Diana Quick in the 1978 RSC production of ''The Women-Pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read'' by Steve Gooch, at the Aldwych Theatre in London. * Both Bonny and Mary Read are mentioned in the lyrics of "Five Guns West" by

Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants were an English Rock music, rock band that formed in London in 1977. The band existed in two versions, both fronted by Adam Ant, between 1977 and 1982. The first phase began when the band were founded in May 1977 and were call ...

from their 1981 album ''

Prince Charming Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character archetype who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales ...

''. * "Anne Bonny" is the title of the second track off of Death Grips 2013 album '' Government Plates''. * Bonny prominently appears in the video game '' Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag'', voiced by Sarah Greene. * Bonny was portrayed by Clara Paget in the Starz TV Series '' Black Sails.'' * Bonny is a main character in the 2021 Netflix docuseries '' The Lost Pirate Kingdom'', where she is portrayed by Mia Tomlinson. *

Minnie Driver Amelia Fiona Jessica "Minnie" Driver (born 31 January 1970) is a British and American actress and singer. She rose to prominence with her break-out role in the 1995 film ''Circle of Friends (1995 film), Circle of Friends''. She went on to star i ...

portrayed Bonny in the episode ''Fun and Games'' in the second season of the

HBO Max Max (known in other countries as, and soon to be reverted globally to HBO Max) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. It is a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming on behalf of Home Box Of ...

series '' Our Flag Means Death''.

Notes

References

External links

*
Anne Bonny

Encyclopædia Britannica Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonny, Anne 1697 births 1782 deaths 17th-century pirates 17th-century women 18th-century pirates 18th-century women British female pirates Female-to-male cross-dressers Maritime folklore