Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, from 29th September 1770 – 29th September 1771; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 170.

Muster roll for the Venus slave ship. The ship left Bristol in March 1770 and sailed to West Africa. It then sailed to either St Kitts or St Croix in the Caribbean.

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: March 1770

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers