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Pirates: Mary Read When Mary was 13 years old, her grandmother died and Mary found work as a footboy. Growing bored with this menial employment, she soon found alternative employment on board a ship. Still passing herself off as male, she next joined a foot regiment in Flanders, where she fell in love with a Flemish soldier. Having revealed herself as a woman, she and the soldier married and set up an inn named ‘The Three Horseshoes’. Tragically, Mary’s married life was short as she quickly became widowed. Donning men’s clothing once more, she moved on. Mary boarded a ship and headed for the West Indies. Her fateful journey was intercepted by pirates. Differing versions of events exist concerning this time – some say that she joined this group of English pirates, and travelled with them to New Providence in the Bahamas, to take advantage of the pirate amnesty called in September 1717. Upon arriving at New Providence, Read met Anne Bonny and ‘Calico’ Jack Rackham, and joined their crew. The second version suggests that Rackham and his crew were the very pirates who captured Mary’s ship on its way to the West Indies. Nevertheless, it is certain that Mary joined the fearsome gang. Mary’s gender was revealed as Bonny took a romantic interest in the handsome sailor. This prompted Read to reveal her secret to Bonny. Although Anne swore to keep Mary’s secret from the rest of the crew, Rackham became jealous of the close nature of Read and Bonny’s relationship. He demanded an explanation, upon which Read confessed that she was a woman, and bared her breasts to prove this to Rackham. Rackham allowed her to remain on board as part of his crew. Although the crew were initially successful, they soon grew complacent and were easily overpowered by the crew of Jonathan Barnet, a pirate hunter. It was thought that, whilst the men were drunk and put up little resistance to their capture, Read and Bonny gave a spirited fight – however, they were outgunned and soon arrested. They were taken to the prison at Spanish Town, Jamaica. At their trial, both Mary Read and Anne Bonny pleaded a stay of execution, due to pregnancy. Upon examination it was found that they were indeed pregnant – Mary was thought to have been in love with or married to another member of Rackham’s crew, and he was the likely father of her child. They were granted a stay of execution – however, Read died a few month later, whilst in prison. She was buried at the Jamaican district of St. Catherine on 28th April 1721.
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An account of the early life of Mary Read was given in Captain Charles Johnson’s ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates’ (1724) This volume stated that Mary’s mother had married a sailor named Read, and that the couple had had a son. When the sailor abandoned Mrs Read and her child, she had an affair and became pregnant (some sources suggest that Mrs Read was widowed rather than abandoned). Leaving her husband’s relatives in order to conceal her pregnancy, she stayed with friends in the country, where she gave birth to Mary in around 1695. Soon her son died, and it was decided that Mary should be dressed as a boy to pass her off as her brother, and gain financial assistance from the sailor’s family. Mary’s grandmother agreed to provide the child with a crown a week, for the maintenance of the child. 
