Stede Bonnet was living the life by the age of 28 – at a young age he had inherited generational wealth, he was well-educated, well-married with four children and his family lived on a 400-acre estate on Barbados, a lush Caribbean island.
An heir to an established landowning aristocratic family in Barbados, Bonnet enjoyed luxuries equal to that of the finest houses in London.
According to Captain Charles Johnson, author of the 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, Major Stede Bonnet “was a Gentleman of good Reputation,” a “Master of a plentiful Fortune,” and was given “the Advantage of a liberal Education.”
Bonnet’s education and bookishness may have ultimately led him to piracy (see more of that discussion in my book, The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet).
And, his liberal education ultimately was held against him as an aggravating factor at his trial. The passage below, from attorney general Richard Allein, sums up the government’s position,
I am sorry to hear some expressions drop from private persons, (I hope there is none of them upon the jury) in favor of the pirates, and particularly of Bonnet: that he is a gentleman, a man of honor, a man of fortune, and one that has had a liberal education. Alas, gentlemen, all these qualifications are but several aggravations of his crimes.
How can a man be said to be a man of honor, that has lost all sense of honor and humanity, that is become an enemy of mankind, and given himself up to plunder and destroy his fellow creatures; a common robber, and a pirate?
Nay, he was the archipirata, as it is now taken in the worst sense, or the chief pirate, and one of the first of those that began to commit those depredations upon the seas since the last peace.
I have an account in my hand of above twenty-eight vessels taken by him, in company with Thatch, in the West Indies, since the 5th Day of April last, and how many before, nobody can tell.
His estate is still a greater aggravation of his offence, because he was under no temptation of taking up that wicked course of life.
His learning and education is still a far greater aggravation; because that generally softens men’s manners, and keeps them from becoming savage and brutish.
But when these qualifications are perverted to wicked purposes, and contrary to those ends for which God bestows them upon mankind, they become the worst of men, as we see the present instance, and more dangerous to the Commonwealth….
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