Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1766 – 1767; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 212.

Muster roll for the ship, the Pierpoint , second voyage to Africa and Jamaica, 1765.
The crew included a steward, clerk, gunner, a surgeon’s mate and a cooper. Ten of the crew died in Africa or at sea. The ship sailed for Angola in West Africa, but may have traded along the coast, as several of the crew ran away in Guinea. It is not known how many slaves were bought, but 460 or 450 were sold in Jamaica.

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: 1765

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers