Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1788 – 1789; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 7.

Detail of the muster roll for the ship, the Ruby , sailing from Africa and the West Indies, 1787.
James Arnold was surgeon aboard the Ruby . He wrote an account of the voyage for the Abolitionist campaigner, Thomas Clarkson. Arnold gave evidence to the 1788 Parliamentary committee which investigated the slave trade. Arnold gave evidence about how slaves were captured and bought and the conditions on board the ship.

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: 1787

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers