Bonney, Anne (1700–?)
Bonney, Anne (1700–?)
Irish-born pirate. Name variations: Ann Bonny. Born in 1700 in Co. Cork, Ireland; date of death unknown; illeg. dau. of William Cormac (Irish attorney) and an unknown servant; m. James Bonney, in 1718; children: unknown.
When young, immigrated with family to Charleston, South Carolina; began to frequent the waterfront, disguised as a man; eloped with a young sailor named James Bonney, whom she had met in a dockside tavern; with husband, set sail for the Bahamas, determined to seek fortune on the island of New Providence (1719); fell in love with pirate Calico Jack Rackham, plotted with him to seize a sloop riding at anchor in the harbor, and made for the open sea (1719); captured Dutch merchantship (1719); met Mary Read (1719); captured by Royal Navy and "Calico Jack" Rackham hung (1720); sentenced to death but was pregnant (1720); delivered child, then disappeared (1721).
See also Women in World History.