Estimating Jones' age

Title says it all, but I found myself curious to find out what Jones' age could possibly be in the franchise. While this is all an estimation, the results are interesting, but they also might've ended up complicated things lol.

In this estimation, I used some data that concerns the time-period. I don't consider myself well read on the time-period of the 17th Century, but I quickly searched up what I needed. The historical data I used in my estimation was:

• Average life expectancy in 17th century: adults reaching to their 50s-60s.
• Average age men had kids in the 17th century: between age 25 and 30.
• Average age men became Master blacksmith in the 17th Century: between age 24-30.
• Average age men working as full-fledged sailors in 17th century: 20s or 40s, but started their career as early as at age 14.

Then, I used info considering the films, such as:

• DMC/AWE Year In Canon: 1729.

• Years since Jack made deal with Jones prior to events of DMC: 13 years.

• Davy Jones' time in Land Of The Dead: 10 years.

• Maker of Dead Man's Chest: Grandfather of The Coopersmith (father of the father of the Coopersmith).

• Bill Nighy's age in DMC: 56 years old (born in 1949, and the film was shot in 2005).

So with the info we're going to use to find an estimation of Jones' age laid out, I'm just going write away. This is all, of course, approximation, but the historical data will gives us some sense of what to approximate on.

When Jack infiltrates The Turkish Prison to retrieve the key-cloth, he makes acquaintance with a prisoner in there who is known as The Coopersmith. This individual is the grandchild of the smith who constructed The Dead Man's Chest for Jones. So we're already dealing with three generations of bloodline within the history of the chest: a grandfather, who is the chest's smith, his son and his grandchild (who is imprisoned in The Turkish Prison during DMC).

Life-expectancy in the 17th century was harsh, many only living up to their 40th year, but it was not unknown that adults reached to live up to their 50s and 60s.

Seeing as The Coopersmith is locked up in the prison, he's most likely a fully grown adult man during the events of DMC, but his age is unknown. But let's estimate he's around Jack's age (who is 39 years old during the events of DMC) and have him, for convenience's sake, at 40 years old (most likely living what's little left of his life in a cell, given the poor conditions of the prison). This would place The Coopersmith's year of birth at 1689 (1729 - 40 = 1689).

The Coopersmith's father is the son of the chest's smith. It should be taken into account his year of birth. To estimate that, we have to take into account the general age which men of the 17th century used to take upon fatherhood.

Due to societal constraints of the time, men rarely married until they were established enough to support a family, only becoming fathers usually between the age of 25-30. So, let's assume the father of The Coopersmith had his son while he was himself 25, establishing himself as a father at the earliest possibility, according to the data of the period we're focusing on. That would place the father's year of birth at 1664 (1689 - 25 = 1664).

And finally, his father is the original smith of The Dead Man's Chest. Let's assume he took upon fatherhood a bit later in his life and was at the age of 30 when taking upon fatherhood. That would place the chest's maker year of birth at 1634 (1664 - 30 = 1634)

Now, Jones must've had the chest commissioned before taking the oath of The Flying Dutchman; before becoming tethered by its terms and forbidden to make port save once in a decade. So he must've been a mortal man when he had the chest constructed.

I estimate that Jones' age during the chest's commission was at the age of 56 years old, which is the age of the character's actor, Bill Nighy, during the production of the film Dead Man's Chest, which was shot in 2005. I estimate it that way, since the character shares signs of age of the actor; especially in his human-form, which is revealed during the events of AWE. But also to the fact that once Jones becomes immortal through the ship's terms, he effectively stops to age, as his essence is no longer biologically driven nor affected by the passage of time; since he's immortal.

The Coopersmith's grandfather, the maker of The Dead Man's Chest, must've had achieved the rank of Master in the smith-guild, to be able to operate his own shop and take on such specific and unusual commissions, as the making of The Dead Man's Chest is, as he sees fit.

The usual age when smiths achieved the rank of Master during the 17th century was between the age of 24-30. This is why I place the grandfather's journey to fatherhood a bit later than his son's, seeing as he'd have to establish himself properly before starting to provide for a family.

Again, this is all an estimation, whilst using historical data to elaborate on. So the year would be 1664 when the 56 year old Jones would approach the 30-year old master-smith, who has recently become a father in our estimation, to construct The Dead Man's Chest.

Now, for Jones' year of birth, we can estimate it by deducting the years he's been alive, away from the year of the chest's commission. So, by deducting 56 away from 1664, we can estimate that Jones was born in the year 1608 (1664 - 56 = 1608). So, early 17th century.

The average age of sailors in the 17th century ranged from their 20s to their 40s, but boys could start their careers as early as the age of 14. With this, we can assume that Jones' years as a sailor and until he commissions the chest, span from the year 1622 (at the age of 14) to 1664 (to age 56). Somewhere in this time-span, Jones falls in love with Calypso.

Once the chest is complete, some unknown time later Jones takes up the oath and effectively becomes immortal; in which he stops being biologically dependent and is unaffected by the passage of time, since he's immortal.

We know that he faithfully served for 10 years before abandoning his duties. So we can then estimate that Jones faithfully carried out his task between the years 1664-1674.

You could maybe add a year or two on, in case his oath wasn't taken shortly after the chest's construction, but for simplicity's sake, we're going to assume he takes the oath shortly after the chest's construction.

Jones' age after his ferryman years would then make him 66 years old (56 + 10). Here is the point of his life where he abandons his job and betrays Calypso and removes his heart and hides it in The Dead Man's Chest on The Isle Of Crosses.

42 years later, in the year 1716, Jones raises The Wicked Wench for Jack. This would make Jones 108 years old at this point in time in PotC history (66 + 42 = 108, or 1716 - 1608 = 108)

13 years later, in the year 1729, Jones confronts Jack and is there to collect his payment of their deal and the following events that ensued is known history. During Jones' confrontation with Jack and up to Jones' death, Jones is at the ripe age of 121 years old (108 + 13 = 121).

Jones would therefore have been captain of The Flying Dutchman for only 65 years (1664 to 1729), from the age of 56 to 121.

Based on this, not even Jones himself has served for 100 years, and certainly none of the other crew-members recruited aboard his ship have either.

Since this is all an estimation based on historical data to guide us to an approximate answer, we could tweak with the ages within the lineage of the smith, which would move around the time-span a little bit, but it would only result in minor adjustments to the results of Jones' age, a few years on or off but nothing really significant.

Also, estimating Jones' age to be older than that of the character's actor, or younger, wouldn't make any substantial changes either in the grand scheme of things. Jones, having to be mortal upon the chest's commission, necessitates that his age is limited to biological capability in our estimation.

Realizing that Jones must've been only alive for around decade and not decades, whilst impressive, does narrow the timeline of his legendary tale surprisingly a lot.

This would also narrow the history of The Brethren Court substantially, seeing as Jones besought The First Brethren Court to bind Calypso. If Jones was only captain for 65 years, then the history of the Pirate Lords was REALLY hectic. The meeting of the Brethren Court in AWE was the fourth meeting in The Brethren Court's history, and as Barbossa stated in AWE: "There's not been a gathering like this in our lifetime".

And Barbossa was 59 years old at the time of AWE, 20 years older than Jack. Jones would've only have been captain of The Flying Dutchman for about 6 years when Barbossa is born.

So...did those three meetings of The Brethren Court, prior to AWE, happen absurdly fast by one set of Pirate Lords, or did the shift of Pirate Lords shift absurdly fast?

All in all, for Jones to have been active menace on the seas that spans a longer timeline, the lineage of the chest's smith MUST go further back than just three generations; seeing as the making of the chest is a pivotal event in Jones' life as a mortal.