Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from the September 1766 – September 1767. Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 23.

Muster roll of Hospital Account of the ship, the Acton , from Georgia, 1766.
A crew of 17 sailed from Bristol. 10 were discharged in March, April and May in Georgia. 10 more, including a cook, were taken on in Georgia in August for the return voyage. The owners did not want to pay the crew for the weeks and months spent sitting in port whilst finding a cargo fpr the return voyage.

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: 1766

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers