Whitby Merchant Seaman's Muster Rolls
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| Conserving muster rolls | Example of a muster roll |
The Muster Rolls are a unique series of historical documents which are the surviving paperwork for the Whitby Merchant Seamen's Hospital's regulation of the "seaman's sixpence", an eighteenth century pension provision. This pension provided financial support to injured seamen and to the widows and children of seamen who died while serving on merchant ships.
The Muster Rolls record a wealth of information about crews and ships, and offer a particularly rare insight into working men's lives.
The Muster Rolls record age and place of birth; port where and when enlisted; where and when leaving the ship; name of the ship and its owners.
The Library holds on microfilm the Whitby Muster Rolls from 1747 to 1795 and also some Whitby Muster Rolls from 1800 to 1850.
The Museum added over seven thousand Whitby Muster Rolls to our collection in 2010. These Muster Rolls are in need of repair and conservation and Whitby Museum is working in partnership with North Yorkshire County Record Office, ICON (The Institute of Conservation), and teams of volunteers on a conservation project. We are very grateful to the Thomas William Varley Roe Deceased Trust for providing the funding to allow the purchase and conservation of these Muster Rolls.
After conservation the next stage of the project will be the digitisation of the Muster Rolls so that the information in the Muster Rolls can be made available to researchers.
Since the Muster Rolls are in a fragile condition the original documents will not be made available for research.