Anne Bonny

Bonny's birthdate is unknown, likely between the years 1670 and 1700.[6] She was said to be born in Old Head of Kinsale,[7] in County Cork, Ireland.[8] She was the daughter of a servant woman, Mary Brennan, and Brennan's employer, the lawyer William Cormac. Cormac's wife had become ill and was moved to her mother-in-law's home a few miles away to be cared for. Whilst Cormac's wife was away, he began an affair with Mary Brennan, who as a consequence gave birth to a daughter, Anne. Although Anne was therefore illegitimate, Cormac presented her as his legitimate daughter.[9] Official records and contemporary letters dealing with her life are scarce, and most modern knowledge stems from Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates (a collection of pirate biographies, the first edition partly accurate, the second much embellished).[10][11][12]

William Cormac first moved to London to get away from his wife's family, and he began dressing Anne as a boy and calling her "Andy". When Cormac's wife discovered William had taken in his illegitimate daughter and was bringing the child up to be a lawyer's clerk and dressing her as a boy, she stopped giving him an allowance.[13] Cormac then moved to the Province of Carolina, taking along Anne and her mother Mary Brennan. At first, the family had a rough start in their new home; Cormac attempted to establish himself as a lawyer in Charles Town but did not do well. However, his knowledge of the law and ability to buy and sell goods soon financed a townhouse and eventually a plantation just outside the town. Bonny's mother died when Anne was young.[14]

It is recorded that Bonny was considered a "good catch" but may have had a fiery temper; she supposedly stabbed a servant girl with a knife.[11] She married a poor sailor and small-time pirate named James Bonny.[15] James hoped to win possession of his father-in-law's estate, but Bonny was disowned by her father. Anne's father did not approve of James Bonny as a husband for his daughter, and he threw Anne out of his house.[16]

There is a story that Bonny set fire to her father's plantation in retaliation, but no evidence exists in support. However, it is known that sometime between 1714 and 1718, she and James Bonny moved to Nassau, on New Providence Island, known as a sanctuary for English pirates called the Republic of Pirates.[17] Many inhabitants received a King's Pardon or otherwise evaded the law. It is also recorded that, after the arrival of Governor Woodes Rogers in the summer of 1718, James Bonny became an informant for the governor.[18] James Bonny would report to Governor Rogers about the pirates in the area, which resulted in a multitude of these pirates being arrested. Anne disliked the work her husband did for Governor Rogers.

Anne Bonny, Firing Upon the Crew, from the Pirates of the Spanish Main series (N19) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes MET DP835030

While in the Bahamas, Bonny began mingling with pirates in the taverns. She met John "Calico Jack" Rackham, and he became her lover. Rackham subsequently offered money to her husband James if he would divorce her, but her husband refused and threatened to beat Rackham. She and Rackham escaped the island together, and she became a member of his crew. She disguised herself as a man on the ship, and only Rackham and Mary Read were aware that she was a woman[16] until it became clear that she was pregnant. Rackham then landed her in Cuba where she gave birth to a son.[13] She then rejoined Rackham and continued the pirate life, having divorced her husband and married Rackham while at sea. Bonny, Rackham, and Read stole the ship William, then at anchor in Nassau harbor, and put out to sea.[19] Rackham and the two women recruited a new crew. Their crew spent years in Jamaica and the surrounding area.[20] Bonny took part in combat alongside the men, and Governor Rogers named her in a "Wanted Pirates" circular published in The Boston News-Letter.[18]

When Bonny told Read that she was a woman because she was attracted to her, Read revealed that she too was a woman. To abate the jealousy of Rackham, who suspected romantic involvement between the two, Bonny told him that Read was a woman.[21] Speculation over the relationship between Bonny and Read led to images depicting the two in battle together.[22]

A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas, left a description of Read and Bonny: 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 [Dorothy Thomas]." Thomas also recorded that she knew that they were women, "from the largeness of their breasts."[23]

In October 1720, Rackham and his crew were attacked by a sloop captained by Jonathan Barnet under a commission from Nicholas Lawes, Governor of Jamaica. Most of Rackham's pirates put up little resistance, as many of them were too drunk to fight. They were taken to Jamaica where they were convicted and sentenced by Governor Lawes to be hanged.[24] When Anne Bonny was being tried in Jamaica, many of the gentlemen planters of Jamaica knew Anne Bonny’s father and had dealt with him before. Therefore, it was assumed that Bonny might receive favour in her trial. However, her action of leaving was a harrowing circumstance against her that was one of the reasons that ultimately led to her imprisonment. [9]

Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies", asking for mercy because they were pregnant,[25] and the court granted them a stay of execution until they gave birth. Read died in prison, most likely from a fever from childbirth. A ledger from a church in Jamaica lists her burial on 28 April 1721, "Mary Read, pirate".[26]

There is no record of Bonny's release, and this has fed speculation as to her fate.[27] 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 the 1964 romance novel Mistress of the Seas.[28] A Spanish Town burial register lists the burial of an "Ann Bonny" on 29 December 1733. Spanish Town is the same town in Jamaica where Bonny was tried in 1720.[26] Captain Charles Johnson writes in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, published in 1724: "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".[29]

• The account of Bonny given in A General History of the Pyrates is considered fictional,[30] or only partially correct.[18]
• Bonny is a main character in the 2021 Netflix docuseries The Lost Pirate Kingdom, where she is portrayed by Mia Tomlinson.
• Jean Peters portrays a character based on Anne Bonny in the 1951 film Anne of the Indies, itself based on a 1947 article by Herbert Ravenel Sass.[31]
• Bonny and Read are portrayed in the Detective Conan animated film Detective Conan: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure.
• Bonny is featured in the video game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, as a supporting character who becomes quartermaster to protagonist Edward Kenway during the final levels of the game. She is voiced by actress Sarah Greene.
• Bonny is a playable character in Fate/Grand Order as a Rider-class and an Archer-class Servant along with Read; Bonny is voiced by Ayako Kawasumi.
• Bonny is a main character in the Starz series Black Sails and is portrayed by Clara Paget.
• Bonny is featured in the song "The Ballad of Mary Read and Anne Bonny" by the Baja Brigade.[32]
• The second song from the Death Grips album Government Plates is named "Anne Bonny".
• Bonny is depicted as a pirate lord having founded Libertalia alongside Henry Avery, Thomas Tew, and several other famous pirates in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End in an altered version of the pirate colony's founding. Her corpse is encountered at a certain point in the game.
• Bonny and Mary Read are mentioned in Charlie Kaufman's 2020 novel Antkind.
• In the manga One Piece, the character Jewelry Bonney is named after Anne Bonny.
• Anne Bonny is a prominent character in the German animated film The Abrafaxe – Under The Black Flag.
• The 1948 film The Spanish Main includes the character Anne Bonny in a fictionalised account.
• Captain Anne Bonny is portrayed by Hillary Brooke in the 1952 comedy film Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd. She initially teams up with Captain Kidd in search of a treasure but is ultimately betrayed by him.
• 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, London.[33]
• A character named Anne Bonnie appears as a supporting antagonist in the 2021 anime series Fena: Pirate Princess. She is depicted as a member of the all-female pirate crew of the ship Rumble Rose, serving under captain Grace O'Malley. Another character named after Mary Read is one of her crewmates.
• A character named Anne Bonny appears in the Cyberpunk Red podcast Dark Future Dice from Rocket Adrift Games. She is depicted as a bunny nomad racer.
• A character named Anne Bonnie appears as a ghost in a 1974 episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theatre called "The Strange Voyage Of The Lady Dee".
• Bonny is the subject of the 2018 single "Anne Bonny" and album "The Legend of Anne Bonny" by Karliene.[34]
• Anne Bonny, along with John Rackham and Mary Read, features in the AMA Theatre stage play The Buccaneers and is played by Annie Albici
• Anne Bonny and Mary Read appear in the Lyrics of the song “5 Guns West” by Adam and the Ants, on their 3rd album Prince Charming (released in November 1981)
• Anne Bonny appears alongside Mary Read in the book Seizure, the second book in the Virals series, written by Kathy Reichs. Reichs is an author and creator of the television series Bones.
• Minnie Driver portrays Anne Bonny in the second season of Our Flag Means Death.
• Genevieve Lowe plays Anne Bonny in the one-woman show, A Boy Called Anne, at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham in 2023, produced by Tortive Theatre.[35]

In 2020, a statue of Bonny and Read was unveiled at Execution Dock in Wapping, London. It was originally planned for the statues to be permanently placed on Burgh Island in south Devon,[36] but these plans were withdrawn after complaints of glamorizing piracy, and because Bonny and Read have no association with the island.[37] The statues were eventually accepted by Lewes F.C. [38]

• Capture of the sloop William

Websites

• "Anne Bonny", Encyclopædia Britannica Online
• "Fact and Fiction", Newspaper article
• "The true and false stories of Anne Bonny, pirate woman of the Caribbean", Newspaper article

Books

• Baldwin, Robert (1721). The Tryals of Captain John Rackam and Other Pirates. in The Colonial Office Records in The Public Records Office at Kew, (ref: CO 137/14f.9).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  Details the trials of Jack Rackam, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and Charles Vane.
• Carlova, John (1964). Mistress of the Seas. Citadel Press.
• Cordingly, David. "Bonny, Anne (1698–1782)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 18 November 2006.
• Druett, Joan (2000). She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684856905.
• Gosse, Philip; De Marco, Guy Anthony (2015). The Pirate Who's Who (Extended ed.). Amazon: Villainous Press. pp. 52, 53, 54. ISBN 978-1-62225-650-1.
• Jarrells, Ralph E. (2019). "Fiery Red Hair, Emerald Green Eyes and A Vicious Irish Temper", WordCrafts Press. 2019. ISBN 978-1-948679-64-0
• Johnson, Captain Charles (1724). Hayward, Arthur L. (ed.). A history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pirates from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence to the present year. London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.
• Lorimer, Sara; Synarski, Susan (2002). Booty: Girl Pirates on the High Seas. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
• Meltzer, Milton; Waldman, Bruce (2001). Piracy & Plunder: A Murderous Business. New York: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN 0-525-45857-3.
• Sharp, Anne Wallace (2002). Daring Pirate Women. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications.
• Simon, Rebecca Alexandra (2022). Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Philadelphia: Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
• Zettle, LuAnn (2015). Anne Bonny The Last Pirate. Amazon: Arrowhead Book Co. pp. 8, 9, 11. ISBN 978-0-9826048-6-1.
• Brown, Douglas (1962). Anne Bonny, Pirate Queen. Monarch #MA320.

Games

• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag fictionalized version of Anne Bonny voiced by Sarah Greene