Birth of Anne Bonny

Birth of Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny was born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland on 8th March 1697.

She was the illegitimate daughter of lawyer William Cormac and his servant woman, Marry Brennan.

William’s wife made his adultery public, so after losing his reputation, William with his new wife and newborn daughter, decided to leave Ireland and start again in America.

They settled in Charleston, South Carolina where they bought a plantation, and William began his legal career again.

After losing her mother in her late teens, Anne had to take care of her father’s household.

There are a lot of stories about her teen years ~ some of them even claim that she murdered a servant girl with a knife, and there is one about a young man that she put in the hospital for several weeks, after his failed attempt to sexually assault her.

When she was sixteen years old, she fell in love with a small-time pirate, James Bonny.

Her father was against their relationship, but she was stubborn and married him anyway.
William was very disappointed, because he wanted to make a respectful lady of Anne, so he turned her out of his home.

James took his wife to New Providence, the pirate’s hideout.

Then James turned against the pirates.
For a fee, James Bonny would report to the Governor about the pirates in the area, which resulted in a multitude of these pirates being arrested.

Anne disliked the work her husband did for the Governor.
She had made many pirate friends, and loved the pirate life.

While in the Bahamas, Anne began mingling with pirates in the taverns.
Here, Anne met John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackam, and they soon became lovers.

Calico Jack was a romantic Pirate Captain, who even offered to buy her from Anne’s husband.
Anne’s husband refused, so the pair ran off together.

Calico Jack was a typical small-time pirate who usually attacked coastal shipping, Anne quickly became a member of his crew.

The relationship between Anne and Calico was not public, but on the ship everybody knew that Anne was “the captain’s woman.”

When Anne became pregnant, Calico left Anne in Cuba to have the baby.
There are several theories about what happened to Anne’s first child.

Some people think that she just abandoned her, some believe that Calico had a friend with a family in Cuba who agreed to raise their child.

Some even believe that her child died at birth.

After a few months, she returned to Calico’s ship. However, the infamous Mary Read was also on board.

It did not take long for the two girls to become good friends.
According to some sailors, Anne and Mary were in a romantic relationship.

The crew spent a few years in Jamaica and the surrounding area.
Anne and Mary took part in combat alongside the men.

They wore men’s jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads.
Each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands, and they cursed and swore, just like the men.

In October 1720, Captain Barnet, an ex-pirate now commander of British Navy, attacked Calico’s ship.

Almost the entire crew was drunk.
They were celebrating all night because they managed to capture a Spanish commercial ship.

The fight was short because only Mary and Anne resisted.
However, in the end, they were also overpowered.

Calico’s crew was taken to Port Royal to stand trial.
Everybody was found guilty for the crime of piracy.
The sentence was death by hanging.

However, Anne and Mary were spared, because they claimed to be pregnant.
When Calico Jack was granted a special favour to see Anne on the day he was to hang, Anne’s words to him were,

“I’m sorry to see you here, but if you’d have fought like a man, you needn’t hang like a dog!!”

Mary died in a Jamaican prison from fever, Anne however, received several stays of exEcution before mysteriously vanishing from official records.

There is no record of Anne Bonny’s release, and this has fed speculation as to her fate.

A ledger lists the burial of an “Ann Bonny” on 29th December 1733, in the same town in Jamaica where she was tried.

According to the 1004 version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Anne Bonny’s father managed to pay the ransom for his daughter, and bring her back to Charles Town.

Soon after, she gave birth again, to Calico Jack’s child.

In 1721, she remarried to Joseph Burleigh, and they had 8 children together.

Based on this account, Anne Bonny died on either the 22nd or 25th April 1782, in South Carolina.

?‍☠️ Anne Bonny from a Dutch version of Charles Johnson’s book of pirates.
Edited and colorised by BlindKat Publishers in 2007.