Mary Read

Mary Read was born in 1691 to a widow of a sea captain. She was disguised as a boy after her brothers death to continue financial support from his grandmother. Read kept her disguise until she fell in love with a Belgian-Dutch soldier. When her husband died she returned to her disguise as a man.

Mary became a pirate when other pirates forced her to join them, John “Calico Jack” Rackham and Anne Bonny. Read stayed in her disguise until Bonny began to fall in love with Mary. Calico Jack didn’t enjoy this at all threatening to “Cut the throat of Bonny’s new paramour”. To escape her impending doom, Read had let them in on her secret.

When Read and the other pirates took several captures Mary fell in love with one. Soon after Rackham’s crew was invaded and we’re sent to the noose. However both Mary Read and Anne Bonny “Pleaded the pelly” or getting out of execution because of pregnancy. Mary Read died in prison in April 1721 before giving birth to her baby.