Description:

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

Detail from the muster roll of the ship, the Little Pearl , sailing from Bristol to Africa and the West Indies, 1786.
James Arnold was the surgeon on the Little Pearl . In 1788, he gave evidence to a Parliamentary committee which was looking into the slave trade.

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