Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1785 – 1786; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 96.

Muster roll for the ship, the Hector , from Jamaica, 1783.
Although the muster roll says from Jamaica , this was just the last leg of a slaving voyage to Cape Coast in West Africa. The master was said to have bought 400 slaves, but the ship was reported to have reached Dominica with 514, and landed 112. The ship reached Jamaica with 402 or 390 slaves.

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: 1783

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers