Mary Read

Mary Read
Mary Read kills a pirate
Born	c. 1690 (1690) England
Died	April 1721 (aged 31) Port Royal, Jamaica
Piratical career
Type	Pirate
Allegiance	English-allied infantry and cavalry in Holland
Years active	c. 1708-1721
Rank	Privateer
Base of operations	Caribbean

Mary Read (c.1690–1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny are two of the most famed female pirates of all time; they are the only two 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 the late 17th century, to the widow of a sea captain. Her date of birth is disputed among historians because of a reference to the "Peace of Ryswick" by her contemporary biographer Captain Charles Johnson in A General History of the Pirates. He very well may have made an error, intending to refer to the "Treaty of Utrecht". Whichever it is, her birth was around 1691.

Because she had become pregnant as a result of an affair following the disappearance of her husband, Read's mother attempted to hide the birth of her daughter, Mary. She first began to disguise illegitimately born Mary as a boy after the death of Mary's older, legitimate brother Mark. This was done in order to continue to receive financial support from Read's paternal grandmother. The grandmother was apparently fooled, and Read and her mother lived on the inheritance into her teenage years. Still dressed as a boy, Read then found work as a foot-boy, and later found employment on a ship.

She later joined the British military, 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 she fell in love with a Flemish soldier. When they married, she used their military commission and gifts from intrigued brethren in arms as a funding source 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 Holland. With peace, there was no room for advancement, so she quit and boarded a ship bound for the West Indies.