Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, from 29th Sep1771 – 29th Sept 1772; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 127.

Muster roll for the slave ship Gambia, which left Bristol in 1771 for Gambia, on the west coast of Africa. Here, it collected 133 enslaved Africans. The slaves were sold when the ship arrived in South Carolina, USA. Joseph Banfield sailed on the Gambia again for this voyage to the Gambia and South Carolina. This voyage passed without incident for Banfield.

Joseph Banfield was on board the Gambia on a slaving voyage in 1769. He was separated from his ship and helped by Africans living on the coast. He was rescued and returned to his ship by the wife of the governor of Fort James, an English trading fort in Gambia.

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: 1771

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers