Stede Bonnet was widely known as "The Gentleman Pirate". This spiffy dresser was not quite a gentleman as much as it was that he had no idea what he was doing. His pirating career is widely disputed, but most agreed about to the fact that it was quite a bumbling failure.
Bonnet was an educated land owner in Barbados. He lived on asugar plantation near Bridgetown, and had a well upbringing. All in all, he had no knowledge of the sea or of Piracy. All the same, for reasons that are still unknown to this day (and widely speculated for no reason whatsoever) he decided to become a pirate. Unlike other pirates of the day who gained ships by stealing them, he saw fit to legally purchase a ten gun sloop and named it Revenge.
He preyed on small ships for a time, and somehow managed to eventually team up with the legendary Blackbeard. It is unknown as to why, but Blackbeard was either amussed and entertained, or honestly liked Bonnet. For whatever reason, Blackbeard invited Bonnet on his ship, where Bonnet seemed rather content.
However, the alliance eventually ended and Bonnet set out alone again. It is said that he was granted a pardon at one point providing he no longer attacked English ships, but in less than a month he just decided to start attacking English ships again.
He was quickly captured, nearly by accident, by William Rhett who had been hunting other pirates in the area. Bonnet apparently begged in a mannerly and somewhat moving way to keep himself from being hanged. However, it was of no use. He and his crew were tried and hanged in December of 1978.