Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1752 – 1753; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 132.

Muster roll for the ship, the Greyhound, sailing from Africa and Virginia USA, 1751.
The whole voyage took just over 15 months. It was reported that the great rains in Angola, West Africa, had delayed the buying of slaves there, as the African traders could not get their slaves across the flooded rivers inland to bring them to the coast. 336 slaves were sold at Virginia.

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