Even after studying the life and death of Stede Bonnet, it is this question of “WHY?” that remains a mystery.
In writing my book, The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet, THAT is really THE question. WHY and, possibly, HOW, at least mentally, did Bonnet do what he did – leaving his family and wealth behind for the dangerous, dirty and grueling life of a pirate.
The short answer is WE DONT KNOW WHY Bonnet did what he did. And, although we have clues that lead to theories, the likely reality is that we will never know the exact WHY.
What we doknow that even in the midst of such bounty, Bonnet did not adjust well to family life.
Stede suffered, as the author of A General History of the Pyrates: From their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time (A General History) described in, “some Discomforts he found in a married State” that eventually caused Bonnet “a Disorder in his Mind.”
The reasons for the “Discomforts” of the Bonnet marriage are not well-preserved, however, but I have some theories:
- Perhaps Stede’s early life as an orphan (both of his parents did when he was six years old) caused him to carry emotional baggage that was too much to sustain an already fragile married.
- Or, as noted by several historians, perhaps the emotional stresses (for Stede and for Mary) of losing their child Allamby at an early age creating irreconcilable fissures in the Bonnet marriage.
- Almost entirely absent from the historical discussion about Stede Bonnet and Mary Allamby, however, is the contextual background of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. If Allamby supported George I, Stede and Mary would have a significant political divide between them.
- Maybe Bonnet was trapped in a love life that did not suit his needs?
- Much has also been made of Johnson’s description of the “discomforts” Bonnet found in his married life, and it is amusing for many to jest that a nagging wife forced Bonnet into piracy.
- Or, it is possible the latter diagnoses from Captain Johnson, that Bonnet suffered “a Disorder in his Mind,” that is more accurate. It is quite possible that Bonnet suffered from a true disorder, with possibilities ranging from simple wanderlust to bipolar disorder or, more likely, dementia, that evidenced itself in Bonnet’s behavior.
