Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1766 – 1767; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 216.

Muster roll for the ship, the Charming Polly , sailing from St Kitts and St Croix (Caribbean), Holyhead (North Wales) and Dublin (Ireland), 1766.
Unusually, the Charming Polly went to the island of St Croix, which was a Danish colony, although it was settled by English colonists from Montserrat. Most of Bristol’s trade was with the British Colonies.

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