Description:

From ships’ muster roll book, 29th September 1772 – 29th September 1773; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 155.
Muster roll for the ship, The Dorsetshire , from Africa and Jamaica, 1772.
The list includes the name of the last ship each crewmember served on. All but one of those listed – The King George , Nancy , Betsey , Molly , Catharine , John , Mercury , Mary and The Britannia – could have been slaving ships; so 16 of the 30 crew may have had experience of slaving voyages before this one.

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: 1772

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers