Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1748 – 1749; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 138.

Muster roll for the ship, the Swift, sailing from Africa and Jamaica, 1748.
The Swift sailed for the Gold Coast, West Africa, with instructions to buy 280 slaves. The actual number bought there and sold at Jamaica is not known.

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

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers