Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, 29th September 1769 – 29th September 1770; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 154.

Muster roll of the slave ship, Thomas. The ship left Bristol for Gabon in West Africa, and arrived in St Kitts in the Caribbean in 1769. It later sailed back to Bristol.
John Matthews, the ship’s master, died on 5th April 1769.

The muster roll is a list of all crew signed on for all or part of a voyage, which was used to calculate the money each man should pay to the Sailors’ Hospital Fund (insurance).

The Society of Merchant Venturers is a Bristol-based organisation, which was formed in 1552 as an elite body of merchants involved in overseas trade. The Society still exists today.

Date: c1760s

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers