Town Clerk (Port Royal)

"Smith. Or Smithy, if you like."

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"Jack Sparrow. Be it known that you have been charged, tried, and convicted for your willful commission of crimes against the Crown, said crimes being numerous in quantity and sinister in nature, the most egregious of these to be cited herewith... piracy, smuggling, falsification of Letters of Marque and Reprisal, impersonating an officer of the British Royal Navy, impersonating an officer of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating a cleric of the Church of England, sailing under false colors, arson, kidnapping, looting, poaching, brigandage, pilfering, depravity, depredation, and general lawlessness. And for these crimes, you have been sentenced to be, on this day, hung by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on your soul."

―The town clerk reading Captain Jack Sparrow's sentence^[src]

This man served as the town crier of Port Royal in the 1720s. He helped the British Royal Navy in their failed attempt to hang infamous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in 1728, and later also aided the East India Trading Company in their botched hanging of French Pirate Lord Capitaine Chevalle in 1729.

Biography[]

Stationed at Port Royal in Jamaica in the 1720s, the town crier was tasked with announcing the death sentences of those hanged at the gallows in Fort Charles.^[1]

Executions in the 1720s[]

When notorious and famed pirate Captain Jack Sparrow was to be executed at the gallows in Fort Charles in 1728, the clerk announced the death sentence, and read glumly about the numerous crimes committed by the notorious pirate, some of which Sparrow found particularly amusing. However, by the time the clerk had finished, the pirate was rescued by young blacksmith Will Turner, and a short battle with the British Royal Navy Marines ensued, during which the clerk promptly fled the scene.^[1]

In 1729, following the arrival of Lord Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company Armada at Port Royal aboard the HMS Endeavour, French Pirate Lord Capitaine Chevalle was captured and arranged to be executed as part of Beckett's War Against Piracy. The town clerk read out Chevalle's death sentence, only for it to be revealed that the hangman's noose had been sabotaged the night before, therefore snapping when the executioner pulled the lever. Will Turner and Jack Sparrow then appeared and disposed of the Royal Marines present, allowing Chevalle to escape.^[2] His further fate is unknown.

Behind the scenes[]

"Captain Chevalle. You have been sentenced to be brought to this place of execution where you will be hanged by the neck until dead and thereafter your body buried within the precincts of the prison and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul."

―Town Clerk during Chevalle's hanging^[src] (PS3/Xbox 360 version)

The town clerk was portrayed by Owen Finnegan in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also appeared in the At World's End video game, but it is unknown who provided the character's voice.
Most of Jack Sparrow's crimes were heard in The Curse of the Black Pearl, though the list of crimes is written in Jack's file from The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company.

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

[COTBP-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

[AWEVG-2] Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End video game

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Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki