Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet was an English pirate who was known as the Gentleman Pirate because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. Despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided he should turn to piracy in the spring of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, the Revenge, and travelled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.
Bonnet set sail for Nassau in the Bahamas, to the haven for pirates known as the "Republic of Pirates", but he was seriously wounded en route during an encounter with a Spanish warship. After arriving in Nassau, Bonnet met the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Incapable of leading his crew, Bonnet temporarily ceded his ship's command to Blackbeard. Before separating in December 1717, Blackbeard and Bonnet plundered and captured merchant ships along the East Coast. After Bonnet failed to capture the Protestant Caesar, his crew abandoned him to join Blackbeard aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. Bonnet stayed on Blackbeard's ship as a guest, and did not command a crew again until summer 1718, when he was pardoned by North Carolina governor Charles Eden and received clearance to undertake privateering against Spanish shipping interests. Bonnet was tempted to resume his piracy but did not want to lose his pardon, so he adopted the alias "Captain Thomas" and changed his ship's name to Royal James. He had returned to piracy by July.
In August, Bonnet anchored Royal James on an estuary of the Cape Fear River to careen and repair the ship. In late August and September, Colonel William Rhett, with the authorisation of South Carolina's governor Robert Johnson, led a naval expedition against pirates on the river. Rhett's and Bonnet's men engaged in combat for hours, but the outnumbered pirates ultimately surrendered. Rhett arrested the pirates and brought them to Charles Town in early October. Bonnet escaped on 24 October, but was soon recaptured on Sullivan's Island. On 10 November, Bonnet was brought to trial and charged with two acts of piracy. Judge Nicholas Trott sentenced him to death. Bonnet wrote to Johnson to ask for clemency, but Johnson endorsed the judge's decision, and Bonnet was hanged in Charles Town on 10 December.
Pre-criminal life
Stede Bonnet was born in 1688, and he was christened at Christ Church parish on 29 July 1688. His parents, Edward and Sarah Bonnet, owned an estate of over southeast of Bridgetown, Barbados, which was bequeathed to Bonnet upon his father's death in 1694. Bonnet received a good education, and lived as one of the richest and highest members of Bridgetown society. Bonnet married Mary Allamby in Bridgetown on 21 November 1709. They had three sons – Allamby, Edward, and Stede Jr – and a daughter, Mary. The three surviving children were all younger than five when their father abandoned them for piracy.In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, historian Robert C. Ritchie suggests that Bonnet was driven to piracy to escape his bad marriage, or to "recapture his more adventurous youth". Details of Bonnet's military service are unclear, but he held the rank of major in the Barbados militia. Bonnet's militia service coincided with the War of the Spanish Succession, but there is no record that he took part in the fighting.
Early career as a pirate
During the spring of 1717, Bonnet decided to become a pirate, despite having no knowledge of shipboard life. He contracted a local shipyard to build him a sloop, which he equipped with ten guns and named the Revenge. This was unusual, as most pirates seized their ships by mutiny, by boarding them, or by converting a privateer vessel to a pirate ship. Bonnet enlisted a crew of more than seventy men. He relied on his quartermaster and officer for their knowledge of sailing, and as a result, he was not highly respected by his crew. In another break from tradition, Bonnet paid his crew wages, not shares of plunder as most pirates did. After staying at anchor for several days, telling inquirers that he was going to use the Revenge for island trading, Bonnet departed Carlisle Bay, Barbados, under the cover of darkness.Bonnet's initial cruise took him to the coast of the Colony of Virginia, near the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, where he captured and plundered four vessels, and burned the Barbadian ship Turbes to keep news of his crimes from his home island. He sailed north to New York City, taking two more ships, and picking up naval supplies and releasing captives at Gardiners Island. Finding that New York was a less profitable hunting ground, by August Bonnet had returned to the Carolinas, where he attacked two more ships, a brigantine from Boston and a Barbadian sloop. He stripped the brigantine, but brought the cargo-filled Barbadian sloop to an inlet off North Carolina to use for careening and repairing the Revenge. After the Barbadian sloop's tackle was used to careen the Revenge, the ship was dismantled for timber, and the remains were burned. In September, Bonnet set course for Nassau, which was an infamous pirate den on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. En route, he encountered, fought, and escaped from a Spanish man-of-war. The Revenge was badly damaged, Bonnet was seriously wounded, and half the crew of the sloop was killed or wounded in the encounter. Putting in at Nassau, Bonnet replaced his casualties and refitted the Revenge, increasing the sloop's armament to twelve guns.
Collaboration with Blackbeard
While at Nassau, Bonnet met Captain Benjamin Hornigold and Blackbeard for the first time. Blackbeard and Bonnet struck up an unlikely friendship, and decided to cruise together, with Blackbeard taking command while Bonnet kept to his cabin, recovering from his wounds. The ship sailed northward to Delaware Bay, where they plundered eleven ships. On 29 September, the Revenge, captained by Blackbeard, plundered the sloop Betty, which had a cargo full of Madeira wine. Captain Codd, whose merchant ship was taken on 12 October, described Bonnet as walking the deck in his nightshirt, lacking any command and still unwell from his wounds. The Revenge later captured and looted the Spofford and Sea Nymph, which were leaving Philadelphia. On 22 October, the Revenge stopped and robbed the Robert and Good Intent of their supplies. On 17 November Blackbeard captured the French slave ship La Concorde which he took as his own, naming her Queen Anne's Revenge. Bonnet took back command of Revenge.Some time after 19 December, Bonnet and Blackbeard separated. Bonnet sailed into the western Caribbean. On 28 March 1718, he encountered the 400-ton merchant vessel Protestant Caesar off Honduras. The ship escaped him, and his frustrated crew became restive. When Bonnet encountered Blackbeard again shortly afterwards at Turneffe Atoll, Bonnet's crew deserted him to join Blackbeard. Calling Bonnet on board his own ship, Blackbeard essentially imprisoned him, suggesting that as a gentleman he would prefer a life of leisure to that of command. Blackbeard put a henchman named Richards in command of the Revenge. Bonnet, surprised that his colleague had betrayed him, found himself as a guest aboard Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. Bonnet confided in a few loyal crew members that he was ready to give up his criminal life if he could exile himself in Spain or Portugal.
Under Richards, the Revenge captured a Jamaican sloop, the Adventure, captained by David Herriot, who joined the pirates. Bonnet accompanied Blackbeard to South Carolina, where Blackbeard's four vessels blockaded the port of Charles Town in the late spring. Needing a place to rest and refit his vessels, Blackbeard headed north to Topsail Island, where the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground and was lost in June. With dissent rising amongst the pirates, Blackbeard allowed Bonnet to take command of the Revenge again. Leaving the remaining vessels at Topsail Island, Blackbeard and Bonnet went ashore and journeyed to Bath, which was the capital of North Carolina. Once there, both men accepted pardons from Governor Charles Eden under King George's Act of Grace, putatively on condition of their renouncing piracy forever. While Blackbeard quietly returned to Topsail Island, Bonnet stayed in Bath to get a "clearance" to sail the Revenge to Denmark's Caribbean colony of St. Thomas, where he planned to buy a letter of marque and go privateering against Spanish shipping. Eden granted Bonnet this clearance.
Resumption of pirate command
Bonnet returned to Topsail Island to find that Blackbeard had sunk several of his pirate ships, taken all the loot, and robbed the Revenge and two other vessels of the squadron of most of their supplies, before sailing away. Bonnet then rescued seventeen pirates who had been marooned on a sand bar by Blackbeard for disagreeing with his plans.Bonnet began to resupply the ravaged Revenge, having bumboats bring food on board from ashore. One of these informed Bonnet that Blackbeard was moored in Ocracoke Inlet with only eighteen pirates. Wanting to take revenge on Blackbeard, Bonnet set sail for Ocracoke, but missed Blackbeard's departure by several hours. Bonnet gave chase but failed to catch the other pirate. Although Bonnet apparently never discarded his hopes of reaching St. Thomas and getting his letter of marque, Blackbeard had stolen the food and supplies he and his men needed to subsist.
Hoping to preserve his pardon while returning to his pirate ways, Bonnet adopted the alias "Captain Thomas" and changed the Revenges name to the Royal James. The name Royal James that Bonnet conferred on his sloop was possibly a reference to James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of the deposed James II of England who was at the time plotting to retake the throne of England from George I of Great Britain.
Bonnet further tried to disguise his return to piracy by engaging in a pretence of trade with the next two vessels he robbed. Soon afterward, Bonnet quit the charade of trading and reverted to naked piracy, encouraged by his crew. Cruising north to Delaware Bay, in July Bonnet pillaged several more vessels, totalling eleven since he had received his pardon. He took several prisoners, some of whom joined his pirate crew. While Bonnet set loose most of his prizes after looting them, he retained control of the last two sloops he captured.
During these operations the Royal James had begun to leak badly and was in need of careening. Bonnet sailed the ship to Cape Fear River, a well-known pirate rendezvous, to undertake repairs which were estimated to require two months of work. Shortly afterwards, a small shallop entered the river and was captured. Bonnet had the shallop broken up to help repair the Royal James. The work of careening was done, in whole or in part, by the prisoners Bonnet had captured. Bonnet threatened at least one man with marooning if he did not work with the slaves to repair the Royal James. Bonnet remained in the Cape Fear River, intending to wait out the hurricane season there.