Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from the 29th Sep 1774 – 29th Sep 1775; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 247.

Muster roll for the slave ship Africa, which sailed from Bristol to New Calabar, West Africa, in 1774. The ship then sailed to St Kitts in the Caribbean, where the cargo of enslaved Africans was sold.

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: 1774

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers