Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1767 – 1768; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 138.

Muster roll for the ship, the Little Pearl , sailing from Bristol to Africa and the West Indies, 1786.
The Little Pearl was a small slaving ship of only 70 tons. It is not known where the ship went in Africa, nor how many slaves were bought. 100 were sold at St Vincent. The ship’s surgeon was James Arnold. He gave evidence about the slave trade to a Parliamentary committee in 1788.

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: 1786

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers