Mary Read | |
|---|---|
 1724 engraving of Read fromA General History of the Pyrates | |
| Died | April 1721 (1721-05) |
| Resting place | Saint Catherine Parish,Jamaica |
| Piratical career | |
| Type | Pirate |
| Allegiance | John Rackham |
| Years active | August – October 1720 |
| Base of operations | Caribbean |
Mary Read (died April 1721), was an Englishpirate who served underJohn Rackham. She andAnne Bonny were among the fewfemale pirates during the "Golden Age of Piracy".
Much of Read's background is unknown. The first biography of Read comes fromCaptain Charles Johnson's 1724 book,A General History of the Pyrates. According to Johnson, Read was born inEngland, dressed as a boy much of her childhood, eventually joined the military and later moved to theWest Indies. Though Johnson's version of events has become generally accepted, there is little evidence to support it.
At an unknown date, Read traveled to theBahamas where she became acquainted with the pirate John Rackham. In August 1720, Read joined Rackham's crew, alongside another female pirate,Anne Bonny. Together they stole the sloopWilliam owned byJohn Ham fromNassau on 22 August 1720. Rackham and his crew carried out a number of attacks on merchant ships in the West Indies until they were captured by formerprivateerJonathan Barnet following abrief naval engagement in October 1720 nearJamaica. Rackham, along with all the male crew members, were tried, sentenced, and executed, but Read and Bonny both claimed to be pregnant during their trials and received a stay of execution.
While Anne Bonny’s fate is unknown, Mary Read died while imprisoned in Spanish Town around April 1721 of an unknown cause.
Read's date and place of birth are unknown.[1] Nothing definitive is known about her early life. No primary source, including her own trial's transcript, makes mention of her age or nation of origin. Unlike Anne Bonny, numerous Mary Reads were born in the late 17th century across England, making it difficult to figure which one is the future pirate.
Possible suspects include a Mary Read born inBristol around May 1681, whose father John became aMadagascar pirate before dying of an unknown cause. Her mother Ann Canterell wrote a letter toAdam Baldridge in 1698 asking for her husband’s wealth, never receiving a reply.[2]
Another possibility is the Mary Read who signed theBreholt Petition in 1708. The petition, sent toQueen Anne, included the signatures or marks of 48 individuals related to pirates still on Madagascar. It was hoped this plea would encourage the issuing of a general pardon to the pirates; Breholt expected to recover some of the stolen goods. The signatures were collected by the writerPenelope Aubin. One of the 48 names is a mark for Mary Read, indicating she was literate. The petition ultimately failed and no pardon was issued.[3]
Whether the pirate Mary Read was one of these two women, none of these two women, or both is unclear at best.
Read is not noted to have been a colonist of Nassau before 1713. Before 22 August 1720, little can be definitively said about Read's early life.
_by_Captain_Charles_Johnson.jpg)
All details concerning Read's early life stem fromCaptain Charles Johnson'sA General History of the Pyrates (a greatly unreliable series of pirate biographies).[4] Johnson claimed that Read was born at an unknown date inLondon in theKingdom of England.[5]
Read's unnamed mother married a sailor, with whom she had a son. The husband then went on a sea voyage, never to return. Despite lacking a husband, Read's mother became pregnant again. To avoid the stigma of bearing anIllegitimate child the mother moved from London to the countryside. The boy did not live long; he died in infancy before he was one year old. Shortly after the boy’s death, the mother gave birth to a girl, named Mary.[6]
When Mary Read's mother ran out of money, she turned to her late husband's wealthy mother for support. To get support, Read's mother dressed her in boys’ clothing, to appear to be her deceased brother. The deception worked, and the mother-in-law gave the family acrown a week until she eventually died.[7]
After the death of Mary Read's grandmother-in-law, her mother made the now 13-year-old child afoot-boy for an unnamed French lady. Soon after getting the job, Read's mother died. Disillusioned with the job, Read instead joined the crew of an Englishman-of-war. She later quit and moved intoFlanders, where she carried arms in a regiment as a cadet and served bravely but could not receive a commission because promotion in those days was mostly by purchase.[8]
Read moved on to a regiment of cavalry which was allied with Dutch forces against the French. The conflict Read is involved with is vague but implied to be theNine Years War. Read, in male disguise, proved herself through battle, but fell in love with a Flemish soldier. When they married, she used their military commission and gifts from intrigued brethren-in-arms to acquire an inn named The Three Horseshoes nearBreda Castle in the Netherlands.[9] No known inn near Breda was recorded under that name.
Sometime after opening the inn, Read's husband died, and with the end of conflict following thePeace of Ryswick there was no room for advancement, so she left the military and boarded a ship bound for theWest Indies.[10] The ship that she boarded happened to be attacked by pirates. Read, while still disguised as a man, chose to join the pirates.[11]
When Mary Read arrived on the island ofNew Providence in theBahamas is unclear, but it was likely before 1720.
While living in the pirates nest ofNassau, Read at some point metJohn Rackham. The nature of his relationship with her is unclear and ambiguous, and her own trial transcript says nothing on the matter. She was likely well-acquainted with Rackham by the year 1720, after theWar of the Quadruple Alliance and two years into the reign of GovernorWoodes Rogers.
In August 1720, Read, Rackham, and another woman,Anne Bonny, together with about a dozen other pirate crewmembers, stole the sloopWilliam from the merchantJohn Ham, then at anchor in Nassau harbor, and put out to sea. The crew spent months in theWest Indies attacking merchant ships.[12]On 5 September 1720, Governor Rogers put out a proclamation, later published inThe Boston Gazette, demanding the arrest of Rackham and his associates. Among those named are Mary Read and Anne Bonny.
A General History claims Bonny eventually fell in love with Mary Read, only to discover she was a woman. To abate the jealousy of Rackham, who suspected romantic involvement between the two, Bonny told him that Read was a woman and swore him to secrecy.[14] This is unlikely, since Rogers' proclamation names both women openly. Later drawings of Read and Bonny would emphasise their femininity, although this too likely did not reflect reality.[15]
A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas of Jamaica, would describe in detail Read and Bonny's appearance during their trial. She said they "wore men's jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads: and ... each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her." Thomas also recorded that she knew that they were women, "from the largeness of their breasts."[16]
On 22 October 1720,[17] former privateer CaptainJonathan Barnet took Rackham's crew by surprise, while they drank punch with a group ofturtlers they had brought aboard nearNegril Point off the west coast of theColony of Jamaica. What followed was a short engagement that ended when theWilliams‘ boom was knocked down. Rackham and the crew surrendered immediately after, requesting "quarter". Nobody was killed in the engagement.[18]
Rackham and his crew were arrested and brought to trial in what is nowSpanish Town, Jamaica, where they were sentenced to hang for acts of piracy, as were Read and Bonny. However, the women claimed they were both "quick with child" (known as "pleading the belly"), and received temporarystays of execution.[19] Everyone else was executed. In all likelihood, Read was not pregnant and merely lied to extend her life.
Read died while in prison in April 1721. The cause of her death is unknown. Her burial 28 of April is in the burial records of St. Catherine's Parish. There is no record of the burial of her baby, suggesting that she may have died while pregnant, or perhaps never had been pregnant.
Despite a career of only 61 days, Mary Read is among the most famous pirates in recorded history, primarily due to her gender. Within a decade, Read-inspired characters were already appearing. The first notable inspiration is Polly inJohn Gay's 1729 ballad operaPolly. Despite already appearing in Gay's previous playThe Beggars Opera, her characterization inPolly is blatantly Read.[20]
In the 19th century, literature such as Charles Ellms'Pirates Own Book would discuss Read at length, often with illustrations. Throughout much of the 19th and early 20th century, Read dominated literature and the stage. For the Victorian era, Read was far more popular than Bonny.
By the 21st century, Read had fallen in popularity compared to Bonny, who has appeared in hundreds of books, movies, stage shows, TV programs, and video games.[21] Read, by comparison, has gotten very few depictions and when she is depicted, is often secondary compared to Bonny.[22]
Since the mid 18th century, certain writers have claimed that Read was thelesbian lover of Anne Bonny. This was never stated in the trial transcript or newspapers, and only began to appear after much of Read's legend was written, and by highly suspect sources.
The first written appearance of this claim is in an unauthorized 1725 reproduction ofA General History titled,The History and Lives of All the Most Notorious Pirates and Their Crews. In the passage describing the trial of Bonny and Read, the book briefly says they were lovers. SinceA General History is itself unreliable, this claim cannot be trusted.[23]History and Lives would be the only book to claim Bonny and Read were lovers for almost a century. Achapbook knock off ofHistory and Lives would again repeat the claim verbatim in 1813;[a] Discussion of Read's sexuality would only really begin in the 20th century.
This claim would briefly appear again in 1914, via sexologistMagnus Hirschfeld's book,The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Much likeHistory and Lives, it contains a mere one-sentence claim that Mary Read was a lesbian.[24]
The claim that Bonny and Read were lesbians largely entered popular understanding viaradical feminist Susan Baker's 1972 article, "Anne Bonny & Mary Read: They Killed Pricks" published in a newspaper run by thelesbian separatist organization,The Furies Collective.[25] This article would inspire writers such as Steve Gooch, which in turn would influence many media depictions includingtransgender depictions in the 21st century.
In 2020, a statue of Bonny and Read was unveiled atExecution Dock inWapping, London. The statues were created in part for the podcast series Hellcats, which centers on a lesbian relationship between Bonny and Read. The statues themselves are abstract depictions of Bonny and Read, claiming that one emotionally completed the other. It was originally planned for the statues to be permanently placed onBurgh Island in southDevon,[26] but these plans were withdrawn after complaints of glamorizing piracy, and because Bonny and Read have no association with the island.[27] The statues were eventually accepted byLewes F.C.[28]
Ultimately, it is impossible to determine if Mary Read was Anne Bonny's lover. Neither woman left any primary sources behind, and sources such as the trial transcript make no mention of their personal lives.[29]
_for_Allen_%2526_Ginter_Cigarettes_MET_DP835033.jpg)
The following is a non exhaustive list.
[...] this Intimacy so disturb'd Captain Rackam, who was the Lover and Gallant of Anne Bonny, that he grew furiously jealous, so that he told Anne Bonny, he would cut her new Lover's Throat, therefore, to quiet him, she let him into the Secret also.
Media related toMary Read at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
