Description:

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

Detail from the muster roll for the ship, the Little Pearl , sailing from Bristol to Africa and the West Indies, 1786.
One of the crew of the Little Pearl is named as Black Jack , from Bristol. He was presumably a free black sailor.

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