Born: c. 1700
Died: ?

Few women have been recorded in the histories of piracy. Because they were forbidden—by a pirate code—to sail on pirate vessels, they hid their identities. After Anne Bonny was captured in a battle with British naval officers, she became widely known—making her one of the few women whose life as a pirate has been documented.

A sailor’s wife

Born near Cork, Ireland, Bonny was the illegitimate (born out of wedlock) daughter of William Cormac, a successful lawyer. Her mother was the family’s housemaid, Peg Brennan. When the scandal of having a baby out of wedlock affected the married attorney’s legal practice, he sailed with Brennan and his daughter to America. Settling in Charleston in the British colony of South Carolina, he earned a fortune as a merchant and purchased a large...