Mary Critchett (died 1729, first name also Maria, last name also Crichett or Crickett) was an English pirate and convict. She is best known for being one of only four confirmed female pirates from the
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, North America, and West Africa ...
,
and the only one executed.
History
Six prisoners - "Edmund Williams, George Caves, George Cole alias Sanders, Edward Edwards, Jeremiah Smith and Mary Critchett"
- were transported from
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in late 1728, to work off their sentences.
On 12 May 1729, they escaped and overpowered the two-man crew of the
sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
''John and Elizabeth''.
Critchett held the prisoners in the ship's
hold
Hold may refer to:
Physical spaces
* Hold (ship), interior cargo space
* Baggage hold, cargo space on an airplane
* Stronghold, a castle or other fortified place
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Hold (musical term), a pause, also called a Fermat ...
, sitting on the hatch to prevent their escape.
They released the pair a few days later over Critchett's objections, who feared the two would alert the authorities.
The pirates sailed into
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...
but before they could raid any other ships, they were captured by HMS ''Shoreham'' under Captain Long.
Returned to Virginia, they were tried in August 1729 in
Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:
Places
*Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia
*Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City
*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California
*Williams ...
, convicted of piracy, and sentenced to hang.
See also
*
Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny (8 March 1697 – disappeared April 1721), sometimes Anne Bonney, was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history. What little that is known of her life comes largely from Capta ...
,
Mary Read
Mary Read (1685 – 28 April 1721), also known as Mark Read, was an English pirate. She and Anne Bonny were two famous female pirates from the 18th century, and among the few women known to have been convicted of piracy at the height of the " ...
, and
Martha Farley, the other confirmed women active in piracy's Golden Age.
*
Women in piracy
Although the majority of pirates in history have been men, there are around a hundred known examples of female pirates, about forty of whom were active in the Golden Age of Piracy. Some women have been pirate captains and some have commanded enti ...
Notes
References
Year of birth missing
18th-century pirates
People executed for piracy
1729 deaths
British female pirates
English pirates
English female criminals
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