Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1748 – 1749; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 67.

Muster roll for the ship, the Koulikhan, sailing from Jamaica, 1749.
The Koulikhan was one of many merchant ships supplying the colonies with manufactured goods and foodstuffs. At the bottom of the list, Two Boys Under Age and One Negroe Boy have been crossed out, probably because as boys, they did not have to pay the insurance money.

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.

The language used to describe people of African descent in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is unacceptable in today’s terms. We cannot avoid using this language in its original context. To change the words would impose 20th century attitudes on history.

Date: 1749

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers