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Saturday, 4 November 2017

Brooke Kelsall and the slave ship Hector

Born on 17 December 1726 in Liverpool to Alderman Richard Kelsall and his second wife Sarah King (nee Bankes), Brooke Kelsall was Christened on 9 January 1727 at St Nicholas church in Liverpool.

On 4 September 1749, (in the same month that his father died), Brooke married Elizabeth Tarleton (1725 -    ), daughter of Joshua Tarleton. Three years later, Brooke was the captain on board the slave ship Hector, a 200 tonne boat armed with six mounted guns.


It left Liverpool on 11 January 1752 with a crew of 35. Built to carry 400 slaves, the ship collected 463 slaves from the Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands off the west coast of Africa.

By the time it offloaded the slaves at Kingston, Jamaica, on 21 August 1752, only 378 slaves were still alive. The voyage was completed on its return to Liverpool on 27 March 1753.
Brooke died later in 1753.



I am trying to find information about the slave ship Hector. The image shows the muster roll for a slave ship called Hector (which may or may not be the same ship) which sailed from Bristol to Angola where it collected 280 enslaved Africans before sailing on to South Carolina in 1771/2. The slaves were sold for £2635. (Source The Society of Merchant Venturers)