Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 29th Sept 1763 – 29th Sept 1764; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 77.

Muster roll for the slave ship Arabella, which sailed in 1762 from Bristol to West Africa. 332 enslaved Africans were purchased on the coast of West Africa, and shipped to the Caribbean island of St Kitts.

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: 1762

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers