Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1748 – 1749; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 75.

Detail of muster roll of the ship, the Handy, sailing from Dublin.
The crew list includes Isaac Truail, Colston’s Hospital boy. Isaac must have been from one of the charity schools established by Edward Colston, a Bristol-born merchant and benefactor, who had been a member of the Royal African Company.

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: 1748 - 1749

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers