Description:

From ships’ muster roll book, 29th September 1772 – 29th September 1773; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: SMV 31.
Muster roll for the ship, the Ruby , from Jamaica, 1772.
In the 1780s, there was a ship called the Ruby involved in the slave trade. This Ruby seems to be a merchant ship trading between Bristol and the colonies.

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: 1772

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers