![Anne Bonny and Mary Read - Engraved by Benjamin Cole (1695–1766) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://images.suite101.com/3462461_com_800px_general_history_of_the_pyrates_ann_bonny_and_mary_read.jpg)
Mary Read was the illegitimate daughter of an English woman whose husband was a sailor. He had disappeared shortly before the birth of their son, who in turn died after Mary was born in 1690. When money ran out, Mary's mother appealed to her mother-in-law for support, but in order to secure it, dressed Mary as a boy and pretended she was the legitimate son.
Mary continued to live as a boy, serving as a footboy, and then as a man, first serving as a sailor and then a soldier. It was only after she fell in love with another soldier that she finally revealed her true gender. The two left the regiment, married and ran an inn together.
But after he died, she returned to life as a man and served on board a merchant ship. When it was commandeered by pirates she became one herself and served under Captain "Calico Jack" Rackham. It was on his ship, the Vanity, that she met Anne Bonny.
Anne was also born illegitimately, the daughter of an Irish lawyer and his housemaid. Her father moved them to America, where he ran a plantation in South Carolina. Growing up, she acquired the reputation of being a temperamental tomboy, and some sources say she stabbed a servant girl.
She eloped with James Bonny, an opportunist who may have been after her father's wealth -- to no avail, since he disapproved and disowned her. Again sources differ, but she may have retaliated by setting fire to her father's estate. James took Anne to a pirate's lair in the Bahamas, but then became a snitch against the pirates. Disgusted, Anne fell in with the pirates and became the mistress of Calico Jack. At one point she is said to have borne his child, then abandoned it in Cuba.
On board the Vanity, Anne and Mary struck up a close friendship. It's unclear at what point Anne discovered Mary's gender, whether it was the result of amorous advances, and whether that made any difference. Legend has it that Calico Jack became jealous of Anne's attentions toward what he thought was another man and threatened Mary with a knife, only to be assuaged when he learned the truth.
Or at least, part of the truth. The question of the women's sexuality may never be fully known. Obviously both had married and had relations with men, but in those days they may have set aside their sexual preferences for practical purposes, and historical accounts would also have glossed over any hint at homosexuality. Or they may have been bisexual.
In any case, the two women both are said to have switched back and forth between dressing as men, and both acquired reputations for ruthlessness as great as, and greater than some of, their male counterparts.
Indeed, when their ship was overtaken by authorities, the men scurried below deck but the women stayed and fought, and even shot at their compatriots in anger over their cowardice. All ended up being arrested on charges of piracy, and all were convicted and sentenced to hang.
The sentences of both women were commuted, however, when they claimed to be pregnant. Sources report that Anne visited Jack in prison and told him, "Had you fought like a man you need not have been hanged like a dog."
Mary Read died of a fever while in prison in 1721. No record exists of the sentence against Anne Bonny ever being carried out. Legends range from her having escaped prison, had her freedom purchased by her father, or even escaped along with Mary to live out their lives together.
The Legend of Anne Bonney and Mary Read; Krewe of Bonney Read; 2009
Lesbian Pirates: Anne Bonny and Mary Read; Rictor Norton; 1997
Pirate Mythtory: Bonny and Read, the Lesbian Pirates
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