The Archives

The ArchivesPlacesPort Royal

Port Royal

The fortified town at the mouth of the Jamaica harbour, and the island's chief port from the 1660s, where the buccaneers sold their plunder. The earthquake of 1692 cut it off from the mainland, fire took it again before the autumn of 1703, and by the 1720s it was the place where pirates were hanged.

Also writtenCagway (the harbour's name in a paper of proposals touching Jamaica calendared under April 1660, Calendar of State Papers Colonial vol. 9); The Archaeological Ensemble of 17th Century Port Royal (UNESCO World Heritage List title, inscribed 2025)

Port Royal stands on a sand spit that has since taken most of it back. Jamaica has its own record here. Two periods get folded into one: the buccaneering decades made the town's name, and by the Golden Age it is where pirates are hanged.

The harbour and its forts

Proposals for the keeping of Jamaica, put up in April 1660, hung the island's future on the harbour, Cagway as it was then called: the island could not be preserved for the English unless the harbour were "made capable of defending the ships, being the chief port", and the works already begun were completed. Ships going in or out had to pass under the guns of the forts. In 1703 the Bristol merchants put navigation first: a ship could stand in here without a pilot, where Kingston lay two leagues up a shoal channel of many turnings.4,5,1

Modyford told the Privy Council in 1666 that a Spanish prize had been sold in the usual way and the money put towards finishing the fort at Port Royal. A law of the island then made every arriving ship lodge gunpowder in that fort "for the use of the country", making that fort the island's magazine too.6,7

Sir Nicholas Lawes went over the fortifications with a committee of the Council in the summer of 1718 and found them "very much out of repair", tools and stores missing. By December 1719 he had a new line finished and named Hanover Line. He rated it work without equal, one that would have "the entire command of the harbour" once his thirty-six pounders came out.8

In 1688 the Duke of Albemarle complained that the one wharf fit for careening the King's ships was held by a merchant without a patent, and that the man had refused the Falcon until compelled.9

The buccaneers' town

John Style wrote to Whitehall in January 1669 that the island's trade ran on "plate, money, jewels, and other things brought in by the privateers", sold cheap to the merchant and shipped on to New England and the Madeiras. He put the privateers then out of Jamaica at about eight hundred.10

Modyford had made that trade on purpose. In August 1666 he told Lord Arlington that the guards of Port Royal, 600 strong under Colonel Morgan, had fallen to 138, and that the Council saw no way to fill the place but commissions against the Spaniards. Once he declared he would grant them the town turned round, by his own account: "ships repairing, great resort of workmen and labourers to Port Royal, many returning, many debtors released out of prison".11,12

Henry Morgan and six of his captains gave in an information at Port Royal on 7 September 1668, setting out the commission Modyford had given him about eight months earlier and the ten ships he had got together. He sailed on 14 August 1670 with eleven vessels and 600 men, and at the sailing the Council ordered "all persons keeping victualling houses" to "draw no more drink to any person of the fleet". That Council sat here when it suited, swearing in Sir Thomas Lynch on 15 May 1682.13,14,15

On 29 February 1668 the Governor and Council forbade the buying or selling of enslaved Africans taken on the Spanish coast anywhere in the island but at Port Royal. Enslaved Africans were trafficked through and sold at the town, part of the wider English traffic, and the disaster of 1692 killed the poor and the enslaved with the wealthy.16,2

Earthquake, fire and the quarrel with Kingston

The earthquake of 1692 cut the point off from the land behind it, which London merchants petitioning in 1703 made an argument of: the place was now "so adapted for defence" that no fleet brought against it could ever take it. Much of the built-up area from before 1692 now lies submerged off the present shoreline.17,1

The agents for Jamaica, complaining to the Council of Trade in 1697 of pressing, said that of twelve hundred sailors four years earlier no more than three hundred were left, many having turned pirates.18

The Assembly passed laws disfranchising the town and stripping its freeholders of their property. Pleading that autumn for its resettlement, the Bristol merchants reckoned that since the burning of Port Royal more than a quarter of those who had moved to Kingston were dead, and said sailors were leaving for Curacao because they could not stay on the point. In August about three hundred families had settled there again, most fled back from Kingston.19,20,21

Where the pirates were hanged

By June 1718 the town had almost lost its trade, Lawes told London, blaming the men of war for carrying goods that should have gone in island vessels. The seafaring men, he wrote, "now have not bread for want of employment, which is the chief occasion of so many of them going a pyrating".22

John Evans and his companions did exactly that at the end of September 1722. They "sailed, or rather rowed out of" Port Royal in a canoe, went ashore by night on the north side of Jamaica and broke open a house or two.23

Robert Hudson, one of Charles Vane's men, was charged in March 1721 as a mariner late of the town and parish of Port Royal. The nine men arraigned at an adjourned sitting were all of that parish. The court sat at St Jago de la Vega.24

John Rackham and four of his crew were executed at Gallows Point on 18 November 1720. The bodies of Rackham, Fetherston and Corner were carried out to Plumb Point, Bush Key and Gun Key and hung in chains from gibbets there, "for a publick Example". Charles Vane went the same way on 29 March 1721 and was gibbeted at Gun Key. John Eaton, Thomas Quick and Thomas Baker were hanged at the Point on 17 February, three more at Kingston the next day.25,26,27,28

In the storm of 1722 several hundred tons of stone and rock went over the town wall, Port Royal was flooded and more than half destroyed, and the cannon of Fort Charles were dismounted, some washed into the sea. For the dead the General History gives four hundred, a figure no letter home from Jamaica carries.29,30

The town under the harbour

In 2025 the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as The Archaeological Ensemble of 17th Century Port Royal, under criteria four and six, about twenty-seven hectares of remains ashore and underwater.3

Nothing here counts the dead of 1692. A number would come from the accounts printed in London that autumn and the letters sent home from Jamaica that summer, which lie in the state papers and the pamphlet collections. The old town's size is open in the same way. A survey, a parish register of burials or a bill of mortality would settle how many buildings and taverns stood on the point, and the figures in circulation rest on none of them. For the traffic in enslaved Africans, the paper to find is the naval officer's quarterly list of entries and clearances Lawes was sending home in 1718.

What the evidence does not settle

The trial court and Governor Lawes

  • Names and composition of the trial court are unidentified
  • Governor Lawes's precise role in the trial is not establishedConfirmed

Enslaved Africans through Port Royal

  • Volume of enslaved Africans trafficked specifically through Port Royal is unquantifiedUnverified

Port Royal's founding date

  • Port Royal's founding is sometimes wrongly dated to 1494

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Port Royal commanded one of the finest and best defended harbours in the Caribbean, since ships entering or leaving had to pass under the guns of its forts; much of the built-up area before 1692 now lies submerged off the present shoreline, so that the site is at once an inhabited village and an underwater archaeological reserve. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Heritage record: UNESCO World Heritage List no. 1595 for the command of the harbour mouth and the submerged remains.
  2. Port Royal was a key hub of the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved Africans being trafficked through and sold at the town as part of England's participation in that traffic, with the UNESCO inscription documentation stating that enslaved people contributed to the town's growth and that the disaster of 1692 killed the poor and the enslaved alongside the wealthy; the volume of the traffic through this port specifically, as distinct from Jamaica as a whole, is not established here. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Heritage record: UNESCO World Heritage List no. 1595 for the town as a hub of transatlantic trade including the trafficking of enslaved Africans and for the enslaved among the dead of 1692.
  3. In 2025 the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as The Archaeological Ensemble of 17th Century Port Royal under criteria (iv) and (vi), the property covering about twenty-seven hectares of terrestrial and underwater remains, several forts and the restored Fort Charles. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Heritage record: UNESCO World Heritage List no. 1595 for the 2025 inscription, the criteria and the property area.
  4. A paper of proposals touching Jamaica, calendared under April 1660, states that the island cannot be preserved for the English unless the harbour of Cagway be made capable of defending the ships, being the chief port, and the fortifications begun be completed. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 9, Addenda 1660, item 340, 'Proposals touching Jamaica'.
  5. The merchants of Bristol, arguing in November 1703 for the resettlement of Port Royal, put first that it was navigable without the help of pilots, whereas Kingston lay about two leagues within the harbour up a channel of shoal water and many turnings. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 21 (1702-1703), item 1239.i, Reasons offered by the merchants of Bristol for the resettlement of Port Royal, 8 November 1703.
  6. Governor Sir Thomas Modyford reported to the Privy Council in 1666 that a Spanish prize had been sold in the usual manner and the money disposed of towards the finishing of the fort at Port Royal. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 5 (1661-1668), item 1266, Sir Thomas Modyford to the Privy Council, August 1666.
  7. By a law of Jamaica every ship arriving at the island had to lodge a quantity of gunpowder in the Fort at Port Royal for the use of the country, so that the fort served as the island's magazine. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 29 (1716-1717), item 158.xii, An account of the maladministration in Jamaica during the Government of Lord Hamilton.
  8. Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes found the fortifications at Port Royal very much out of repair in the summer of 1718, and reported on 6 December 1719 that a new line there was finished and named Hanover Line, an incomparable piece of work that would have the entire command of the harbour once the thirty-two thirty-six pounders he asked for were supplied. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 681, Lawes to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1 September 1718; and vol. 31 (1719-1720), item 479, same to same, 6 December 1719.
  9. Governor the Duke of Albemarle complained in February 1688 that the only wharf fit to careen the King's ships on at Port Royal was held by a merchant without a patent, who had refused to let the Falcon be careened there until he was compelled. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 12 (1685-1688), item 1624, Governor the Duke of Albemarle to Lords of Trade and Plantations, Jamaica, 11 February 1688.
  10. John Style wrote from Jamaica in January 1669 that the island's trade consisted principally in plate, money, jewels and other things brought in by the privateers, sold cheap to the merchant and sent on to New England and the Madeiras, and that about 800 privateers were out on that employment. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 7 (1669-1674), item 7, John Style to Secretary Sir William Morrice, Jamaica, 14 January 1669.
  11. Modyford reported on 21 August 1666 that the guards of Port Royal, six hundred strong under Colonel Morgan, had fallen to a hundred and thirty-eight by the beginning of March, and that the Council could think of no way to fill the place with men but commissions against the Spaniards. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 5 (1661-1668), item 1264, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Secretary Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 21 August 1666.
  12. Modyford reported that after he declared his intention to grant commissions against the Spaniards there was a universal change at Port Royal, with ships repairing, a great resort of workmen and labourers to the town, many returning and many debtors released out of prison. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 5 (1661-1668), item 1264, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Secretary Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 21 August 1666.
  13. Henry Morgan and six of his captains gave in an information at Port Royal on 7 September 1668 stating that Modyford had commissioned him about eight months before to draw together the English privateers and take Spanish prisoners, and that he had assembled ten sail of ships. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 5 (1661-1668), item 1838, Information of Admiral Henry Morgan and his officers, Port Royal, 7 September 1668, calendar pages 610-612.
  14. Morgan's Panama expedition sailed from Port Royal on 14 August 1670 with eleven vessels and six hundred men, and gathered strength afterwards. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 7 (1669-1674), item 504, Henry Morgan's relation of the expedition, printed calendar page 201.
  15. The Council of Jamaica sat at Port Royal when it suited, swearing in Sir Thomas Lynch there on 15 May 1682, and at the sailing of Morgan's fleet it ordered every victualling house in the town to draw no more drink to any person of the fleet on pain of imprisonment. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared council minutes: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 501, Minutes of Council of Jamaica, Port Royal, 15 May 1682; and vol. 7 (1669-1674), item 543, Minutes of the Council of Jamaica.
  16. The Governor and Council of Jamaica ordered on 29 February 1668 against the buying or selling of enslaved Africans taken upon the Spanish coast and brought into the island anywhere except at Port Royal. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared council minutes: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 5 (1661-1668), item 1708, Orders of the Governor and Council of Jamaica, 29 February 1668.
  17. London merchants petitioning in October 1703 stated that Port Royal had been separated from the mainland by the earthquake, and argued that it was thereby so adapted for defence that no force of vessels brought against it could conquer it if well defended. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 21 (1702-1703), item 1220.i, Sir B. Gracedieu and others to the Council of Trade and Plantations, London, 30 October 1703.
  18. The agents for Jamaica told the Council of Trade in 1697 that impressment had driven the island's seafaring men away, that many had turned pirates, and that of twelve hundred sailors in Jamaica four years earlier not above three hundred remained. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 15 (1696-1697), item 324, Considerations offered by the Agents for Jamaica and the merchants trading thereto, to the Council of Trade and Plantations.
  19. The Jamaica Assembly passed laws disfranchising Port Royal and divesting its freeholders of their properties there, and the laws were proclaimed at Port Royal, Kingston and Spanish Town in 1703. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 21 (1702-1703), item 1238, Sir B. Gracedieu and others to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 8 November 1703.
  20. The Bristol merchants stated in November 1703 that since the burning of Port Royal above a fourth of the people who had removed thence to Kingston were already dead, and that one reason for sailors deserting the island for Curacao was that they could not be permitted to continue at Port Royal. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 21 (1702-1703), item 1239.i, Reasons offered by the merchants of Bristol for the resettlement of Port Royal, 8 November 1703.
  21. About three hundred families were settled at Port Royal in August 1703, most of them fled from Kingston. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 21 (1702-1703), item 1220.i, Sir B. Gracedieu and others to the Council of Trade and Plantations, London, 30 October 1703.
  22. Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes wrote on 21 June 1718 that the town of Port Royal had almost lost its trade because the men of war carried goods that would otherwise have gone in island vessels, and that the seafaring men had no bread for want of employment, which was the chief occasion of so many of them going pirating. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 30 (1717-1718), item 566, Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Jamaica, 21 June 1718.
  23. Johnson's General History reports that John Evans and his comrades rowed out of Port Royal in a canoe at the latter end of September 1722 and went ashore by night on the north side of Jamaica to break open a house or two. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, vol. 1 (1724), chapter XIV, Of Capt. John Evans, and his Crew.
  24. The 1721 Jamaica trial print describes Robert Hudson, one of Charles Vane's crew, as late of the Town and Parish of Port Royal in the island of Jamaica, mariner, describes the nine men arraigned at the adjourned sitting of the same court as all late of that parish, and gives the seat of the Court of Admiralty as the town of St Jago de la Vega. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and other Pirates (1721; National Library of Jamaica digitisation), heading and articles against Robert Hudson, 10 March 1721, and articles against John Eaton and eight others.
  25. John Rackham and four of his crew were executed at Gallows Point at the town of Port Royal on 18 November 1720. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and other Pirates (St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica, 1721), notice of execution following the sentence of 17 November 1720.
  26. The bodies of Rackham, Fetherston and Corner were afterwards carried to Plumb Point, Bush Key and Gun Key and hung on gibbets in chains, in the words of the trial print, for a publick Example. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and other Pirates (1721; National Library of Jamaica digitisation), notice of execution following the sentence of 17 November 1720.
  27. Charles Vane was hanged at Gallows Point, Port Royal, on Wednesday 29 March 1721, and his body was afterwards hung in chains on a gibbet at Gun Key. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and other Pirates (St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica, 1721), containing the trials of Charles Vane and Robert Deal.
  28. John Eaton, Thomas Quick and Thomas Baker were executed at Gallows Point at Port Royal on 17 February 1720/21, and John Cole, John Howard and Benjamin Palmer at Kingston the next day. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial pamphlet: The Tryals of Captain John Rackam, and other Pirates (1721; National Library of Jamaica digitisation), notice of execution following the adjourned sitting.
  29. Johnson's General History reports that in the storm of 1722 several hundred tons of stones and rocks were thrown over the wall of the town of Port Royal, that the town was overflowed and above half destroyed, and that there was five feet of water from one end of it to the other the next morning. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, vol. 1 (1724), chapter Of Captain Edward Low, the account of the storm at Jamaica.
  30. Johnson reports that in the same storm the cannon of Fort Charles were dismounted and some washed into the sea, and that four hundred people lost their lives. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates, vol. 1 (1724), chapter Of Captain Edward Low, the account of the storm at Jamaica.