Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1788 – 1789; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 95.

Muster roll for the ship, the Sally , sailing from Bristol to Baltimore USA and elsewhere, 1788.
The Sally was one of many merchant ships supplying the colonies with manufactured goods and foodstuffs. It was government policy that the colonies should be a market for British-made goods and supply raw materials to British industry.
The American War of Independence, 1776 – 1783, seriously disrupted British trade with America. Here, after the war, are a few ships trading with the now independent USA.

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: 1788

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers