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
Mary Anne Talbot shown with her claim to have been on the "Vesuvius" as a midshipman when it was captured by the French on the English Channel. The ship in question was, at the time of the alleged capture, serving in the West Indies. Mary Anne Talbot Mary Anne Talbot also known as John Taylor (2 February 1778 – 4 February 1808) was an Englishwoman who wore male dress and became a soldier and sailor during the French Revolutionary Wars. Mary Anne Talbot was born in London at 62 Lincoln's Inn Fields. Later she claimed that she was one of the sixteen illegitimate