STEDE BONNET
THE GENTLEMAN PIRATE
1717 - 1718
Stede Bonnet, born 1688,
to a wealthy English family of Bridgetown, Barbados, a
plantation owner, a former British Army major, married in 1709
to Mary Allamby. Because of “some discomfortsof married life “
he left the safe life ashore to become a pirate, privateering
being a popular ocupation for those so inclined. The summer of
1717 he bought a sailing vessel, named it “Revenge”
hired a crew of cutthroats,
raised the black flag and sailed the eastern coast of America,
althought he had no expreience as a ships captain. From the pirate
haven of Bahamas he sailed to the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay, capturing
several ships off the Delmarva coast. Sometime, while in the Cape
Hatteras waters he fell in with Edward Teach, known as
“Blackbeard”. At the mouth of the
Delaware Bay in 1718 Bonnet
took the sloop Francis in command of Captain Peter Manwearing
without a fight. Unloading
the cargo of molasses and rum, barrels of beef, butter, all the
while
having Captain Manwearing as
a guest treating him politely. Manwearing later gave damaging
testimoney against Bonnet
during his last trial for piracy. Bonnet , in a Charles Town, South
Carolina
court was found giuilty of
“Piracy” and later hung by the neck until dead, 10 December
1718.
Delaware Diary, Michael
Morgan, Delaware Coast Press. March 19 2009
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