Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 29th Sept 1765 – 29th Sept 1766; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 79.

Muster roll for the slave ship, Phoenix, which sailed to West Africa in 1764, where 290 enslaved Africans were purchased. The ship then sailed to the Caribbean island of Jamaica, where the slaves were sold, before eventually returning to Bristol.

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: 1764

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers