Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1794 – 1795; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 19.

Muster roll for the ship the Ann, from Bristol to James River, Virginia USA, and back. Manufactured good and foodstuffs would have been carried out on the Ann from Bristol to Virginia. Tobacco would have been the main cargo for the return trip. The colonies were seen as a market for British manufactured goods and a supplier for British industry.

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: 1794

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers