Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, from 29th Sep1771 – 29th Sep 1772; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 9.

Muster roll for the slave ship Hector, sailing from Bristol to Angola in West Africa, where it collected 280 enslaved Africans. It then sailed to South Carolina, USA. The slaves were sold there for £2635.

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