Description:

From ships’ muster roll book, September 1773 – September 1774; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 56.
Muster roll for the ship, the Macsgwyn , from Kingroad (River Severn near Bristol), 1772.
Kingroad was the start of a 19 month voyage to West Africa and South Carolina.Six of the crew are marked as absent in long Boat since April 28th – whether they drowned or ran away is not clear. Import duty was paid in South Carolina on 254 slaves.

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: 1772

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers