Excerpt from HistoryExtra article, “Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate: how a mid-life crisis created the ‘worst pirate of all time'” available here.
The reason Bonnet left his comfortable island life is likely more complicated than the prevailing view that he suffered “discomforts he found in a married state” caused by a nagging wife.
In fact, there are many other plausible explanations – that Bonnet’s early life as an orphan caused him to carry emotional baggage that was too much to sustain an already fragile marriage; that the emotional stresses of losing a young son created irreconcilable fissures for both Bonnet and his wife, Mary Allamby; that he possessed straightforward wanderlust, owing to a big imagination and access to all the voyage narratives of the time.
But, like much of pirate history, Bonnet’s real motivations are forever lost, hidden from the historical record.
What we do know is that Bonnet is among the most unique figures in pirate history – which is saying something considering some of the other famous pirates that we know of.
For the full Stede Bonnet story, The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet is available on Amazon and through all major booksellers.
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