Anne Cormac was born the illegitimate daughter of an Irish lawyer in County Cork, Ireland on March 8, 1700.  Anne's mother was reportedly a maid in the Cormac house. Mr. Cormac fled the subsequent scandal with the maid and Anne and found refuge in the Carolinas.  At sixteen, Anne was married to James Bonny and disowned by her father.  James Bonny was a pirate before he took Anne to New Providence and became stoolpigeon to Governor Woodes Rogers, betraying many of his fellow pirates.
     Anne tired of her husband and quickly caught the eye of John Rackham (a.k.a. Calico Jack).  Rackham was in New Providence with the intent of receiving a pardon, but soon he tired of law-abiding life and returned to the sea with Anne Bonny in a stolen sloop, the William.

A few years after the beginning of her pirate career, Anne Bonny found out that she was pregnant.  Rackham insisted that the baby be left with a Cuban family to be raised, and Anne agreed.  The two lovers sailed on to the Carolinas, where the governor was known to be friendly to pirates.  In the Carolinas, they picked up a new young crewmember.  Rackham was jealous of the time Bonny spent with this new man, but he was soon reassured when it was revealed that the new man was actually a woman, Mary Read.  Bonny and Read fought together in men's clothing alongside Rackham and the rest of the crew.      Reportedly, Anne became pregnant again and Rackham steered the ship back toward Cuba.  On the way, near the western tip of Jamaica, Captain Barnet, a pirate hunter, surprised them.  The crew cut the anchor rope and tried to escape, but they were overcome and Barnet and his crew boarded the ship.  Read and Bonny were the only ones to put up any resistance; the men were drunk from the celebration of a successful looting.  The women were defeated and the whole crew was taken to Port Royal to stand trial.

       Bonny and Read created quite a sensation because they were women who had broken the rules of society.  According to witnesses, "they were both very profligate, cursing and swearing much, and very ready to do anything."  Victims reported that they wore men's clothing while in action, but dressed as women at other times.  The two pleaded that they were pregnant and were allowed to live in jail until the babies were born.
      Mary Read and her unborn child died of a fever while in a Jamaican prison in 1721, but nothing is certain about Bonny's fate.  Some report that her father forgave her for marrying James Bonny and ransomed her back to the Carolinas.  Another rumor is that Captain Roberts, a successful pirate, sent word to the governor demanding Anne Bonny be set free or all of Jamaica would "feel the thunder of his pirate guns."  Neither of these stories has been proven, for Anne Bonny simply vanished from official records.