ANNE BONNY

Anne Bonny was born an illegitimate child of her father and his maid in around 1702 in Kinsale, Ireland. The shame of the unwanted pregnancy and birth was such that they decided to emigrate. So a very young Ann found herself in North America before the age of five. Her father eventually became a successful merchant, making quite a store of cash and a large international network of partners.

Anne quickly built up a reputation for being fiery of hair and temper, she allegedly stabbed a servant girl at the age of 13 and beat up a boy who made unwanted advances. She didn’t take anything lightly and would fly off the handle for little or nothing. She sounds like a pretty vicious young red-head.

Much to the chagrin of her now wealthy father she decided to marry a down on his luck pirate chap called James Bonny. Many reckon James was just after Anne’s dad’s cash, but as her father had pretty much disowned Anne for marrying a low life, drop out loser, that was never going to happen .

After the promise of a royal pardon, James decided to become an informant which disgusted Ann to the core. In 1710-ish she left him and traveled to New Providence Island in the Bahamas. New Providence at that time was a bit of a haven for pirates and she frequented many a pirate bar where Anne Bonny was known to drink and swear like an engineer and did more than her fair share of sleeping around.

In the Bahamas Anne met a more successful and well renowned pirate by the name of Jack “Calico Jack” Rackham. They went off pirating together across the oceans and were married on the high seas. Together they stole the Revenge from Nissau harbour. They used the Revenge to plunder many other ships and crews and amassed a fearsome amount of booty.

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