Mary Read Mary Read Mary Read (1685 – 28 April 1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny are two of the most famed female pirates of all time, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy during the early 18th century, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy. Mary Read was illegitimately born in England in 1685. Her mother had married a sailor and had a son. After her husband disappeared at sea, Mary's mother became pregnant from an affair. Read's mother attempted to hide the pregnancy by going
Anne Bonny resistance as many of them were too drunk to fight. However, Read and Bonny fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet's troops for a short time. Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, where they were convicted and sentenced by Governor Lawes to be hanged. According to Johnson, Bonny's last words to the imprisoned Rackham were: "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog." After being sentenced, Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies," asking for mercy because they were pregnant. In accordance with English common law, both women received a