Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1751 – 1752; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 214.

Muster roll for the ship, the Molly , sailing from Africa and Jamaica, 1751.
The master, John Fowler, had orders to trade at the Windward Coast in the eastern Caribbean, and move along the coast to Anamaboe and Bonny or Calabar, all in West Africa. 125 slaves were sold at Jamaica, fetching an average of £39 6s (equivalent to about £1,975 today).

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: 1751

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers