Anne Bonny (8 March 1702-22 April 1782) was an Irish pirate who served as a crew member of Jack Rackham's "Revenge" and Edward Kenway's "Jackdaw" during the Golden Age of Piracy. Bonny was known for her friendship with Mary Read, and the two of them were both spared from execution in Kingston, Jamaica because they were both pregnant; Bonny's lover Rackham was hanged. Bonny joined the crew of Kenway's Jackdaw after her previous captain was executed, serving under Kenway for several years.
Biography[]
Bonny and Rackham in 1718
Anne Bonny was born in Kinsale, Ireland, and was married at a young age. She tended to the Old Avery tavern in Nassau after leaving Ireland, marrying a husband. However, she eventually separated from him due to the staring looks of other men at her, as well as due to her infidelity. In 1718, at the age of 16, she met Captain Jack Rackham, who flirtatiously passed her a flintlock pistol and invited her to join his crew on the sloop "Revenge". She became his lover, and made friends with fellow female crew member Mary Read. The two women, along with one man (Mary's husband), were the only ones to fight the British when a British ship attacked "Revenge", as the captain and crew were passed out in the hold due to drunkeness. Rackham was hung in 1721, but Bonny and Read escaped from prison; Read died of pregnancy issues before she could make it out. Bonny was taken to a rowboat by Captain Edward Kenway, who passed out on the shores of Port Royal as she escaped.
In 1722, Bonny became a crew member aboard Kenway's brig "Jackdaw", and stayed aboard as his quartermaster, while Kenway's former quartermaster Adewale left Kenway to serve the Hashshashin order. Bonny did not directly partake in battles because she was still a young woman, only twenty years of age, and she instead assisted in matters of supply and other issues as quartermaster.