Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, from 29th September 1770 – 29th September 1771; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 41.

Muster roll for the ship the Providence, sailing on the 5th of January 1770 from Bristol to the Caribbean island of Antigua and back to Bristol again. The ship would have been taking provisions and other goods to the plantations on the island and bringing back produce grown on the plantations.

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: 5th Jan 1770

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers