Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1783 – 1784; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 104.

Muster roll for the ship, the Alfred, from Africa and Jamaica, 1783.

The Alfred sailed from Bristol to Bonny in West Africa. From Africa it sailed for Jamaica and sold 396 slaves there. Several of the crew seem to have sailed in other slaving ships, such as the Tryall, the Tryton, the Africa, the Polly and the Britannia.

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: 1783

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers