Blackbeard amusement park rides. Much of what is known about him can be sourced to Charles Johnson's "A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates", published in Britain in 1724. A recognised authority on the pirates of his time, Johnson's descriptions of such figures as Anne Bonny and Mary Read were for years required reading for those interested in the subject. Readers were titillated by his stories and a second edition was quickly published, though author Angus Konstam suspects that Johnson's entry on Blackbeard was "coloured a little to make a more sensational story." "A General
Mary Grace Mary Grace Mary Grace ( – 1799/1800) was a self-taught professional portrait painter and copyist in the 18th century. Mary Hodgkiss' father was a shoemaker so her skill as a painter is thought to be self-taught although she may have had some assistance from Stephen Slaughter. She obtained work copying other images but she also exhibited her own compositions too at the Society of Artists of Great Britain. She married Thomas Grace in 1744 in London. In 1749 a painting by her of the Reverend Thomas Bradbury was published after it was engraved by John Faber. The National Portrait Gallery