Anne Bonny ("A General History of the Pirates", published in 1724 leaves out the "e" in Bonney) was born at a town near Cork, in Ireland, her father being an attorney-at-law who emigrated to Carolina. She married a young man without any prospects, who took her to Providence Island. Here she became acquainted with the notorious pirate Capt. Rackham and he persuaded her to go to sea with him in man's clothing. Eventually he landed her on the island of Cuba, where she gave birth to a child. Anne Bonny is depicted on the 25c. stamp.
Mary Read ($1 stamp) was born in England, father unknown, her mother bringing her up as a boy to obtain a subsistence allowance from a relative, who would not have given it if she thought the child was a girl. When she reached the age of 13 she was put into domestic service, to wait on a French lady, as a page-boy. Tiring of this she entered herself aboard a man-of-war, where she served some time, then left and went over to Flanders and carried arms as a cadet in a Regiment of Foot. Finding herself unable to get a commission, which were generally bought and sold, she left the Service and signed on in a Regiment of Horse. She behaved so well that she won the esteem of all her officers, not one having the slightest idea of her sex. Then she fell in love with one of her comrades in arms whom she took into her confidence regarding her sex. They were later happily married. After her husband's death she again assumed men's clothes and eventually shipped aboard a vessel going to the West Indies. It just happened that the ship was captured by English pirates. As she had joined the ship in France, she was the only English-speaking person aboard the vessel.
The pirates took her with them, not knowing her sex. Shortly afterwards the King's Proclamation of Pardon for men giving up piracy was announced and published in all parts of the West Indies. Mary Read's companions surrendered to it and lived peaceably ashore. Money however began to get short, and hearing that Capt. Woodes Rogers, Governor of Providence Island was fitting out privateers to cruise against the Spaniards, she, with several others embarked for that island in order to go privateering, being resolved to make her fortune somehow. No sooner had some of the ships sailed out, than some of the men who had been pardoned rose against their commanders and turned to their old trade. Mary Read was among the number. The two women served together as men successfully under the notorious Jack Rackham, or "Calico Jack" as he was known to his intimates, who was the lover and gallant of Anne Bonny. When he found that his sweetheart was paying attention to Mary Read, under the impression of course that the latter was a man, Rackham grew violently jealous and told Anne Bonny that he would cut her new lover's throat. It was then that Mary Read decided that discretion was the better part of valour and revealed her secret to Anne Bonny that she also was a woman. This eased the tension between the three of them.,.Eventually Mary Read fell in love with an artist aboard the ship, but by this time the secret was open knowledge. Another member of the crew who had a fancy for Mary Read immediately picked a quarrel with the artist to finish him off. He found himself not up against the artist in a duel with sword and pistol but fighting Mary Read herself, to prevent her lover being killed. She soon polished him off. Both Bonny and Read were convicted of piracy on November 28, 1720 at the Court of Vice Admiralty, held at St. Jago de la Vega, in the island of Jamaica. Both women, about to become mothers, were spared execution as pirates. Mary Read however was seized with a violent fever soon after her trial and died without leaving prison. Nothing seems to have been recorded about Bonny after she left prison.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read are both seen on the 15c. stamp of Jamaica but the artist has shown the women making no pretence to hide their sex. This would appear to be artist's licence, for the women did hide their sex. The page of the public notice of their trial is shown on the stamp. Henry Morgan (3c.) has been previously mentioned.
SG333 Sea Breezes 9/71