About Stede Bonnet

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Stede Bonnet was born on the Caribbean island of Barbados in 1688, and was christened in Christ Church parish church. His parents, Edward and Sarah Bonnet, owned an estate of over 400 acres southeast of Bridgetown which was bequeathed to Bonnet upon his father's death.  Bonnet married Mary Allamby in Bridgetown and they had three sons – Allamby (who died in infancy), Edward, and Stede Jr – and a daughter, Mary. The three surviving children were all younger than five when their father abandoned them for piracy.  Bonnet was driven to piracy by Mary's “nagging and discomforts he found in a married state".  During the spring of 1717, Stede Bonnet decided to become a pirate, despite having no knowledge of shipboard life. He contracted a local shipyard to build him a sixty-ton sloop, which he equipped with ten cannons and named her the Revenge.  This was unusual, as most pirates seized their ships by mutiny or by boarding them or by converting a privateer vessel to a pirate ship. Bonnet enlisted a crew of more than seventy men and relied on his quartermaster and 1st Officer for their knowledge of sailing. In another break from tradition, Bonnet paid his crew wages, not shares of plunder as most pirates did.  

Captain Stede Bonnet departed Carlisle Bay under the cover of darkness.

Bonnet took to the coast of Virginia, near the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, where he captured and plundered four vessels.  He sailed north to New York City, taking two more ships, and picking up naval supplies at Gardiners Island.  Bonnet then set course for Nassau, to the haven for pirates known as the Republic of Pirates which was an infamous pirate den on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas.  While in Nassau, Bonnet met Captain Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Teach for the first time; Teach, better known as Blackbeard, played a large role in the remainder of Bonnet's life.

Bonnet was eventually captured in a battle at Cape Fear River, North Carolina and taken to Charlestown, South Carolina for trial.  Bonnet was formally charged with only two acts of piracy, and pleaded not guilty and conducted his own defense without assistance of counsel.  The jury delivered a guilty verdict and Bonnet was sentenced to death.  Stede Bonnet was hanged at White Point Garden, in Charlestown, on 10 December 1718.

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