Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1751 – 1752; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 10.

Muster roll for the ship, the Tryal , from Africa and Virginia, USA, 1750.
The Tryal sailed for Angola, West Africa. It is not known how many slaves were bought, but it was reported that the ship had lost very few. 390 slaves were sold at Virginia. The Tryal was only 90 tons, so the 390 slaves must have been packed in very tightly.

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: 1750

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers