Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1748 – 1749; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 188.

Muster roll for the ship, the Swallow, sailing for Africa and America, 1749.
Where the Swallow went in Africa, how many slaves were bought amd how many sold, is not known. This seems to be the only slaving voyage of this ship. The crew were from merchant vessels with no experience of slaving voyages, so perhaps the venture was not a success for the owners and was not repeated.

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: 1749

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers