25 Facts About Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny was a pirate who served under John Rackham.

The first biography of Bonny comes from Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates.

At an unknown date, Anne Bonny travelled to the Bahamas where she became acquainted with the pirate John Rackham.

Rackham, along with all the male crew members, were tried and sentenced to death, but Anne Bonny and Read had their executions stayed due to both of them claiming to be pregnant.

Anne Bonny is not noted to have been a colonist of Nassau before 1713.

Johnson claimed that Anne Bonny was born in a town near Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland.

Anne Bonny was the daughter of a servant woman named Mary, and her employer, an unnamed attorney.

Anne Bonny became suspicious however, the tanner had noted he had hidden the silver spoons days ago.

How Johnson was aware of the theft of spoons and the exact nature of Anne Bonny's birth, is never revealed.

Anne Bonny proved quite successful as a merchant, earning enough money to buy a large plantation.

Johnson claims that Anne Bonny possessed a fierce temper, such as supposedly stabbing a maid to death with a knife, a claim he immediately finds groundless.

Anne Bonny says she once beat a man severely for attempting to sleep with her.

The attorney expected Anne Bonny to marry a good man, instead she married a poor sailor.

Johnson claims that, after the arrival of Governor Woodes Rogers in the summer of 1718, James Anne Bonny became a minor officer for the governor after taking a pardon.

Anne Bonny cared little for James and frequently cheated on him.

James Anne Bonny serving Woodes Rogers is highly unlikely, as no James Anne Bonny is noted in Captain Vincent Pearse's list of pirates who took the Kings Pardon.

Anne Bonny was likely well acquainted with Rackham by the year 1720, after the War of the Quadruple Alliance and two years into the reign of Governor Rogers.

Anne Bonny took part in piracy alongside the men, handing out gunpowder to fellow pirates, a job usually referred to as a powder monkey.

Later drawings of Anne Bonny and Read would emphasise their femininity, although this too likely did not reflect reality.

Claims of Anne 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.

Since the mid 18th century, certain writers have claimed that Anne Bonny was the lesbian lover of Mary Read.

History and Lives would be the only book to claim Anne Bonny and Read were lovers for almost a century.

In 2020, a statue of Anne Bonny and Read was unveiled at Execution Dock in Wapping, London.

The statues themselves are abstract depictions of Anne Bonny and Read, claiming that one emotionally completed the other.

Ultimately, it is impossible to determine if Anne Bonny was Mary Read's lover.