Mary Read

Mary Read (unknown – 28 April 1721), fictionally known as Mark Read, was an actual English pirate about whom there is very little factual documentation. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the "Golden Age of Piracy".
Read was born in England between 1680 and 1693. Lore has it she began dressing as a boy at a young age, at first at her mother's urging in order to receive inheritance money and then as a teenager in order to join the British military. She then married and upon her husband's death moved to the West Indies around 1715. Circa 1720, she met Jack Rackham and joined his crew, dressing as a man alongside Anne Bonny. Her time as a pirate was successful but short lived, as she, Bonny and Rackham were arrested in November 1720. Rackham was executed, but Read and Bonny both claimed to be pregnant and received delayed sentences. Read died while imprisoned in April 1721.
Early life
Mary's mother had married a sailor, with whom she had a son. The husband then disappeared at sea. His mother then began to send her financial support for the boy.
She soon became pregnant again by another man, hiding the shameful second pregnancy. Her son died, then she gave birth to a girl, Mary. To hide the shame, her mother passed young Mary off as her first and only child, the boy, to continue receiving support from the boy's grandmother. The grandmother was fooled, and they lived on her money as long as possible.
At age 13, dressed as a boy, Read found work as a foot-boy, and, then, employment on a ship. She later joined the British military, and the crew of a British Man of War. She later quit this and moved into Flanders where she carried Arms in a Regiment of Foot as a cadet and served bravely but couldn't receive a commission because promotion in those days was mostly by purchase. Mary moved on to a Regiment of Horse which was allied with Dutch forces against the French (this could have been during the Nine Years War or during the War of the Spanish Succession). Read, in male disguise, proved herself through battle, but fell in love with a Flemish soldier. When they married, she used their military commission and gifts from intrigued brethren in arms to acquire an inn named "De drie hoefijzers" ("The Three Horseshoes") near Breda Castle in The Netherlands.
Upon her husband's early death, Read resumed male dress and military service in the Netherlands. With peace, there was no room for advancement, so she quit and boarded a ship bound for the West Indies. The ship that she boarded happened to be boarded by a pirate ship. Being disguised as a British male helped her, as the British crew members took her in.
Becoming a pirate
Read's ship was taken by pirates, whom she willingly joined. She accepted the King's pardon c. 1718–1719, then took a commission to privateer, but joined the crew in mutiny. In 1720 she joined pirate John "Calico Jack" Rackham and his companion, Anne Bonny, who both believed her to be a man. On 22 August 1720, the three stole an armed sloop named William from port in Nassau. Scholars are uncertain how female pirates like Read and Bonny concealed their sex in a male-dominated environment. Some scholars, however, have theorized that the wearing of breeches by female pirates may have been either a method of hiding their identity or simply as practical clothing that solidified their working place on board the ship among the other seamen.
When Bonny told Read that she was a woman because she was attracted to her, Read revealed that she too was a woman. To abate the jealousy of her lover, Rackham, who suspected romantic involvement between the two, Bonny told him that Read was a woman. Speculation over the relationship between Bonny and Read led to images depicting the two in battle together.
A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas, left a description of Read and Bonny: They "wore men's jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads: and ... each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her [Dorothy Thomas]." Thomas also recorded that she knew that they were women, "from the largeness of their breasts."
Capture and imprisonment
On 15 November 1720, pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet took Rackham's crew by surprise, while they hosted a rum party with another crew of Englishmen at Negril Point off the west coast of the Colony of Jamaica. Allegedly, after a volley of fire disabled the pirate vessel, Rackham's crew and their "guests" fled to the hold, leaving only the two women and one other to fight Barnet's boarding party (it is also possible that Rackham and his crew were too drunk to fight). Allegedly, Read angrily shot into the hold, killing one, and wounding others, when the men would not come up and fight with them. Barnet's crew had a numerical superiority and eventually overcame the women. The official trial transcript says there was no defense mounted aside from a swivel gun being fired before Barnet fired in response. After that the record says that Rackham and his crew surrendered, requesting "quarter".
Rackham and his crew were arrested and brought to trial in what is now Spanish Town, Jamaica, where they were sentenced to hang for acts of piracy, as were Read and Bonny. However, the women claimed they were both "quick with child" (known as "pleading the belly"), and received temporary stays of execution.
Mary Read declared in front of the court that she had never committed Adultery and Fornication with any man of sorts on the ship. She commended the court before her but was ultimately tried after distinguishing the nature of her crimes. One of the pieces of evidence that was included with her crimes was that she was with Rackham and that they fell into discourse when he took Read as a young man.
Read died of a violent fever while in prison. Her 28 April 1721 burial is in the records of St. Catherine's church in Jamaica. There is no record of the burial of her baby, suggesting that she may have died while pregnant.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of Mary Read appears in the 2013 video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and is voiced by Olivia Morgan. She poses as James Kidd, the illegitimate son of Captain William Kidd, and is a member of the Assassin Order.
The 2006 TV film True Caribbean Pirates featured Mary Read portrayed by Kimberly Adair.
The 1961 Italian film Le avventure di Mary Read told the story of Mary Read, who was portrayed by Lisa Gastoni.
Mary Read is also portrayed in the Detective Conan animated film Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure along with Anne Bonny.
Mary Read is a playable character in Fate/Grand Order as a Rider-class and an Archer-class Servant along with Anne Bonny; they are voiced by Ayako Kawasumi (Bonny) and Ai Nonaka (Read).
Read (Cara Roberts) introduces herself to Anne Bonny under the name of Mark Read in the final episode of Black Sails.
Mary Read is featured in the song "The Ballad of Mary Read and Anne Bonny" by the Baja Brigade.
Mary Read is featured in the song "Under the Flag of Mary Read" by Italian metal band Secret Sphere.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny are featured in the song "Five Guns West" by Adam and the Ants.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny are featured in the novel The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara.
Mary Read appears with Anne Bonny as the primary protagonist in the Well-Behaved Women series of books.
Read appears with Bonny and Rackham in the Audible serial podcast Hell Cats, by Carina Rodney.
Mary Read and Anne Bonny appear in the lyrics of the song “5 Guns West” by Adam and the Ants, on their 3rd album Prince Charming (released in November 1981)
Mary Read appears as a companion in the video game Time Princess.
Title character in the 2022 fiction book Bonny & Read by Julie Walker.
In 2023 Rachel House portrayed Read in the second season of Our Flag Means Death.
Sculpture
A wood sculpture, believed to be from the 18th century, of Mary Read is fixed to the front elevation of the 18th-century The Earle Arms public house in Heydon, Norfolk.
In 2020 a statue of Read and Bonny was unveiled at Execution Dock in Wapping, London. It is planned to eventually bring the statue to Burgh Island in south Devon.
See also
Women in piracy
John Bear
References
External links
General History of the Pyrates
Mary Read article at woa.tv
Return to Pirate Island, Simon, Ed, JSTOR Daily, August 4, 2021 with several references
1685 births
1721 deaths
18th-century English people
17th-century English women
17th-century English people
18th-century English women
18th-century pirates
Female duellists
Female-to-male cross-dressers
Sailors from London
Prisoners who died in British detention
English prisoners sentenced to death
English people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in Jamaican detention
Female wartime cross-dressers
Women in the British military
Date of birth unknown
British female pirates
English pirates
Female
English duellists
Pardoned pirates