Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1767 – 1768; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 127.

Muster roll for the ship, the Sadler , sailing from Bristol for Africa, 1765.
The Sadler sailed for Anamaboe, West Africa, and Jamaica. It had only 10 crew, a small number for a slaving ship of 105 tons. The number of slaves bought is not known. 48 were sold in Jamaica, a low number for a ship that size. The Indian Prince , the same size and in the same year, had sold 187 slaves at Barbados. With only 10 crew, the master might have only bought a small number of slaves, but the economics of such a voyage seem odd. It is possible that a large number of slaves died during the middle passage.

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: 1765

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers