Description:

Ships muster rolls from 1770 – 1771; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 68.

Muster roll for the ship, the Gambia, sailing from Africa and Barbados, 1769, with Banfield’s name.
The Gambia sailed for The Gambia in West Africa and Barbados in the Caribbean. The number of slaves bought is not known, but 200 were sold at Barbados. Joseph Banfield 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, West Africa.

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: unknown

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers