Anne Bonny
Anne was barely a teen when she left her native Cork in Ireland for the British colonies, and by sixteen she was en route to the West Indies at the side of her new husband, Mr. Jack Bonny, a gentle but sturdy young man in his early twenties.
The pair arrived in Nassau in April 1716, settling down with an unclear idea of what shape their lives might take. Jack eventually found work on one of the small plantations there, while Anne cultivated her ability to loaf and daydream. Unfortunately, her beauty, aloofness, and incredible indifference to propriety made her the object of more romantic attention than she had ever known- or cared for.
Within a year of arriving in Nassau, the Bonnys’ marriage was in shambles, a union in name only. While Jack disappeared further into his work, Anne grew more confident and sociable, eventually taking a job as a barmaid at the popular Old Avery Tavern in the centre of Nassau. And though she took on a few lovers in the following years, it was largely out of envy and spite that the rabble of Nassau branded Anne a harlot and a tease. But with no high society to shun or shame her, Anne’s desirability only increased on the strength of these rumours.
After living and working in Nassau to no great purpose, Anne eventually fell for the roguish charms of “Calico” Jack Rackham. A man who had already fallen into and out of piracy, Rackham was just the sort of character to lure Anne away from her dull marriage.
It was also around this time that Anne befriended Mary Read, whose masculine disguise she saw through almost immediately. The two became close friends, much to the consternation of Rackham, who threatened Mary with violence for flirting with his prize. Mary, in order to diffuse the situation, revealed herself to Rackham as well- much to his delight.
A few months later, for reasons not entirely clear, Anne, Mary, and Rackham raised a small crew, slipped aboard a moored schooner, and sailed from Nassau’s port under cover of darkness. Their goal was to execute a series of swift robberies before retiring with enough gold to live on, but once again Rackham’s incompetence proved disastrous.
Within three months of setting out, Anne and Mary found themselves alone on the deck of their stolen, damaged schooner, fighting off waves of British soldiers as Jack and the rest of his crew lay below deck, passed out from a heavy night of drinking. They were outnumbered and quickly detained. The British authorities, surprised to find two women fighting so fiercely as pirates, made a spectacle of their subsequent trial. But Anne and Mary had a plan of their own. Unbeknownst to the British, both were pregnant- Anne by Rackham, most likely, and Mary by an unnamed sailor- a fact they revealed just as the judge passed a sentence of execution.
Owing to the fact that they were “quick with child,” the judge stayed their executions until they had given birth. Some four months later, Mary delivered her child but died soon after in prison from a severe infection. Anne, however, was rescued by Edward Kenway and the Assassin Mentor Ah Tabai just in time to give birth at the Assassin camp in Tulum. The child, a boy, died shortly after, and, struggling with the loss of her son and friends, Anne became deeply depressed.
Not long afterwards, Edward returned to Tulum. With Adéwalé having left to join the Assassins, the Jackdaw was in need of a new quartermaster. Anne agreed to take on the role and performed it with gusto, assisting in the pursuit of the Sage Bartholomew Roberts, Templar Woodes Rogers and Grand Master Laureano de Torres, and the eventual defeat of British pirate hunter Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
Despite being coyly invited by Edward to return to England with him, Anne chose to remain at Great Inagua, though she lacked the conviction to formally join the Assassins.
Anne’s final fate is uncertain. It was commonly assumed that her father eventually came for her and spirited her back to the British colonies in North America. However, a burial record found in the archives of St. Catherine Parish in Jamaica, suggesting she may have died at or near Spanish Town in 1733, remains the subject of historical debate.
