Mary Read also called Mark Read in England in 1685 after a marriage to a seaman by her mother had a son when her husband did not return from a voyage later was involved with another man and was again with child. The son later succumbed to an illness and died and later gave birth to Mary who she claimed was her late husband's child and made Mary assume the identity of a boy to continue receiving payment from his inheritance. This deception continued for Mary and she became accustomed to assuming the identity of a male and later used the disguise to enter the British military at the young age of 13 on a British warship. She could no longer continue and left the service and relocated to after meeting another soldier and eventually married him in the Netherlands.

When her husband passed away, she again relocated and this time to West Indies and a few years later still using the guise of a man joined the crew of Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny. Both Jack and Anne still were not aware she was a woman and in November 1720, Jonathan Barnet who was a renowned pirate hunter captured Rackham and his crew as they were celebrating with a mariner from another ship. After a trial for the captured pirates the result was, they were to be hanged for piracy and during this phase both Anne and Mary proclaimed they were pregnant which caused the sentence to be delayed for then until the children were born. According to the report by St. Catherine's church in Jamaica, Mary Read expired while incarcerated in April of 1721 and since no account of a child is mentioned it is surmised it was before the birth.