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Anne Bonny's Ghost Ship
to the domain of Anne Bonny, the most notorious female pirate that ever
lived!
(Note: This version of Anne's story is based almost solely upon the writings of Mr. John Carlova, which are not considered factual by Mr. Tony Malesic and Ms. Jo Stanley, both of whom are considered "pirate authorities---" and in whose opinions I trust enough to post this notice!)I am going to state this here and now,as I am weary of receiving criticizing and/or demanding e-mails:I am not an authority on Anne Bonny.All the information on this pageis all the information I have.If you have nothing nice to say about my work,please keep it to yourself.I have enough problems in my real life to deal with.The known life of Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny (née Cormac) was born March 8, 1700, in County Cork, Ireland,
the illegitimate daughter of a prominent lawyer and his wife's maid.
The ensuing scandal forced him to flee Ireland with his lover and
daughter in disgrace, but the little family found refuge in the
Carolinas. There Cormac amassed a fortune and bought a large plantation.
When Anne was sixteen, a ne'er-do-well sailor named James Bonny married Anne in an attempt
to steal the plantation, but Anne's father instead disowned her. Bonny
then took Anne to the pirate lair of New Providence in the Bahamas,
where he turned stoolpigeon to
Governor Woodes Rogers, accusing any sailor he didn't like of
piracy for a handsome reward.
Anne grew to dislike her spineless husband and spent most of her time
with the pirate elite. Her best friends consisted of the pirates'
paramours and of Pierre, the most celebrated homosexual on the island,
who ran a popular ladies' establishment---
and with whom Anne had a teasing rivalry for the favors of the male
population.
Anne first managed to capture the attentions of Chidley Bayard,
one of the richest men in the Caribbean--- although in order to
keep him she had to duel his current lover, a violent Spanish beauty named Maria (Vargas or Reynaldi--- I've heard two versions) (who, it was rumored, had once
decapitated a child who had inadvertently dirtied her skirts), in a fight to the death. (It was rumored that in her youth, Anne had killed a
servant woman with a carving knife because the servant made her mad.
However, one story suggests that the servant attacked Anne, who was
forced to defend herself). She enjoyed spending his money,
and traveled with him everywhere--- until, at a ball, she met up
with the spiteful sister-in-law of Governor Lawes of Jamaica. When
the woman, after asking Anne catty questions about her position in
Bayard's life, rudely told Anne that she didn't consider Anne worth
knowing and to keep her distance. Anne cheerfully told her she'd make
sure there was quite a bit of distance between them--- and promptly
punched the woman in the mouth, knocking out two of her teeth in the
process. Anne was nearly hauled off to jail, but Bayard's great
power managed to keep her free. However, he could no longer take her
with him on his business trips, and so his use for her diminished.
With Bayard away for much of the time, Anne tired of him before long,
and quickly caught the eye of one Calico Jack Rackham, a pirate of some renown. Governor
Rogers had recently passed an amnesty for pirates which left Bonny
out of work. The attraction between Anne and Jack was mutual.
Calico Jack was a handsome rogue who knew how to spend money as well
as steal it. Anne was a well-endowed lass with a fiery spirit and a
temper to match.
Many of the ex-pirates were getting bored with the humdrum life
on shore, and Jack was no different. He decided to go back to sea with
another pirate, Captain Charles Vane, but when he announced his plans to Anne, she
refused to stay ashore and wait for him. She would go a-pirating, too.
And so they began a life of piracy together.
Anne often wore men's clothing, and was an expert with pistol
and rapier, proving herself to be as dangerous as any male pirate.
Fearless in battle, she was often a member of the boarding party when
a prize was about to be taken.
Not long after they went to sea, Anne discovered she was
pregnant. At first dismayed at the prospect of becoming a mother, she pleaded
with Jack to keep the secret, and stayed on the ship until her
condition became obvious, at which time she went ashore for the
remainder of her pregnancy.
By the time she went ashore, Anne looked forward to the
baby's arrival, even hoping that she might have a girl, a sign that
perhaps she was ready to settle down. But the baby, a girl just as
Anne had hoped, was born two months premature, and died within an hour of her birth.
Anne was devastated. She wept bitter tears, convinced that she
had caused the death of her tiny daughter. To her, life had lost its flavor.
When Jack came back to retrieve his lady, he
was shocked at her condition, and took her back to New Providence to
recover. The amnesty had been extended for another year, and Jack
intended to take advantage of it.
Shortly after their return, Anne learned through her old friend Pierre
of a plot to kill Governor Rogers, and relayed the information to the
governor, saving his life. Governor Rogers was naturally extremely
grateful. But Anne's husband, James, who was still on the island, was
determined to get even with Anne and Jack for openly flaunting their
affair under his nose. He had them arrested in the middle of the night
and brought before Governor Rogers as quickly as the soldiers could
drag the lovers. Jack offered to buy Anne from Bonny, but Bonny, knowing
his wife's temper, refused, saying, "She'll kill me if she's set free!"
Dryly Governor Rogers asked, "Then she'll hang for murder. Are you so
afraid of her, then?" The answer was obvious to all.
Governor Rogers, remembering the favor Anne had done him recently,
waived the standard punishment for the crime--- temporarily. He said
that unless Jack could persuade Bonny to a divorce-by-sale, the pair
must give up their consorting, or Anne was to be flogged--- by Jack
himself---and returned to her husband. Anne was furious that anyone
could even consider selling her like an animal. Refusing to be dictated to,
Jack and Anne slipped out to the harbor the next night, stole a sloop
and took up pirating again.
In October of 1720, retribution was close at hand. Governor
Lawes of Jamaica, hearing of Jack's presence, sent an armed sloop to
intervene and capture the Captain and crew. Jack and Anne were aboard the Providence, a sloop newly-captured by Mary Read, another female pirate. Having just captured a fishing boat the day before, the pirates were making merry with the fishermen's rum. The Providence was
caught by surprise, the male pirates being drunk at the time, and much to
Anne's dismay, instead of fighting, the men hid in the hold and were taken
far too easily. Anne and Mary Read were also
captured, but confessed their true gender. At their trial, when asked
if they had any words to say before they were sentenced, Anne spoke
up for both of them: "We plead our bellies, sir!" Both women were pregnant at the time.
They received separate trials from the men, but were sentenced
to hang after the birth of their babies. When Calico Jack, who at his
trial had pleaded for mercy on behalf of the women, was granted a
special favor to see Anne on the day he was to hang, Anne's words to
him were, "I'm sorry, Jack. But if you had fought like a man, you
would not now be about to die like a dog. Do straighten yourself up!"
Mary Read escaped the hangman by dying from fever while in jail, her
unborn babe dying with her.
Anne, however, received several stays of execution before
mysteriously vanishing from official records. The most common story
is 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. She was twenty years old.
However, according to the book Mistress of the Seas, by
John Carlova, Anne, whose unborn child was fathered not by Jack but by
a Dr. Michael Radcliffe, a man whose life Anne had saved and who
dearly loved her and vowed to save her from the hangman's noose, was
granted a pardon by Governor Lawes on the condition that she leave the
West Indies and never return. (Rumor also had it that another pirate, a Captain Roberts, sent a letter to Governor Lawes, "telling him to let Anne Bonny go or feel the thunder of his pirate guns from Port Royal to Kingston and back again.") She and Michael were then married (Anne
was now a widow, her previous husband, James Bonny, who had become a
turtler, having drowned in a hurricane in the Bahamas), and two days
later they boarded a trading sloop bound for Norfolk, Virginia. There
they were known to have joined a party of pioneers heading westward...
and there is where Anne's known trail ends.
This is about my favorite figure in history.For those
of you not familiar with her, the picture in the background is of Anne
herself.The poem on the scroll bar below is attributed to Anne by Mr. John Carlova.
Please bear with me (and any mistakes you may have discovered in the
above story),and feel free to send any comments to Anne Bonny
In the meantime, my current favorite account of Anne's story(upon which most of the above story is based)
is
Mistress of the Seas, by John Carlova.This page is the recipient of the Links2Go Key Resource Award in (naturally!) the Pirates topic!
Last updated October 23rd, 2007.
Back to the main deck....
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