Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from the 29th September 1765 – 29th September 1766. Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 200.

Muster roll of the ship, the Cornwall , from Bristol to Africa and America and back to Bristol, 1794.
This was the seventh of ten slaving voyages for the Cornwall . Slaves were bought in Angola, West Africa. The records suggest either 500 or 300 slaves were carried, with 300 sold at Jamaica. The return cargo included sugar from the Spring Plantation owned by John Hugh Smyth of Ashton Court, Bristol.

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: 1763

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers