Bunnies up for grabs

Recent conversation about Mutiny on the Bounty has got my brain going again about an old bunny of mine who perks up her ears now and then, but has never managed to get herself written. So, I'm sharing her here, since it looks like there might be a couple of other "Pirate-ish" fans amongst us. Pirates are simply outlaws in a ship instead of on horseback, right?

Anyway, here's the bunny. Anne Bonney and Mary Read, two of the most infamous female pirates, have always intrigued me, and no one really knows for certain what became of them after they went to prison. (They were not hanged, since both were pregnant at the time of their sentencing.) Now, the surname Bonney cannot be all that uncommon, but isn't it interesting that William Bonney (Billy the Kid) also became one of the most infamous men of HIS time period? Perhaps the two share some type of genealogical bond? I've always felt there could be some interesting fiction waiting to be written connecting the two.

Might be more accurate if you said, Bonney's up for grabs.

This is very interesting, Grace. I never really thought of Fletcher Christian and company as pirates in the usual, plundering sense, but I guess they were in reality, given their illegal act. As well, very much like your analogy of pirates as outlaws on ships instead of horseback.

The idea of a possible genealogical bond between Anne Bonney and Billy the Kid ("BTK") is intriguing, but doubtful, as the name, "William H. Bonney," was an alias. He was born William Henry McCarty in New York, and his biological father is unknown. Historians are also not sure if McCarty was his mother's maiden or married name. After a time, she married a man named "Antrim," and BTK was known as Henry Antrim and even Kid Antrim. As well, no one can pinpoint for sure where the surname, Bonney, came from or when he started using it, and speculation runs wild with all sorts of theories. So, fiction would lend more conjecture to the mix and possibly be no less plausible than most of the little-known history. Hope the bunny inspires you to move forward; it would make for interesting reading.