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Insurance
Insurance is the payment of a premium to guarantee monetary compensation in the event of loss or damage to property or life; in the latter case usually termed assurance. Early forms were limited to marine and fire insurance whilst life and accident insurance came later, being preceded by self-help groups such as burial clubs, guilds and friendly societies. Over time, insurance became available for all manner of property and personal risks, ranging from house-breaking, highway robbery, death by gin-drinking, death of horses, to assurance of female chastity!

A good text for the history of British Insurance is Cockerell and Green (The British Insurance Business, 1994), whilst Cannon (The Oxford Companion to British History, 1997) and Kraner-Khalt(Risky Business: The History of Insurance. History Magazine Vol. 1 #6, page 27-30) have shorter discussions. A much weightier tome is that by Jenkins and Yoneyama. Cannon states that calculating risks required the systematic collection and analysis of appropriate data. This wonderful databank may still survive for the use of the genealogist, and the records of fire insurance and life assurance companies are especially relevant to family historians. The archives of insurance businesses are amongst the oldest and largest collections of business records in Great Britain. Since the 1970s most of the large ones have appointed full- or part-time archivists, many have deposited their records in record offices, an important example being the Phoenix now at Cambridge University Library. Wratten (Insurance History Forum. Genealogists’ Magazine Vol. 21 #7, page 235-238) outlined the problems of the archivist in 1984, and much progress has been made since then. The archives’ names and addresses are listed by Cockerell and Green (The British Insurance Business, 1994) who also list insurance institutions and have a useful list of agencies operative in each UK town with dates of extant records and their location. Many of these collections have barely been touched by family historians yet. Examples are shown here.

Chart: Local Insurance Agents’ Records (data from Cockerell and Green)

Brief descriptions of marine and fire insurance are given first here, with emphasis on the records of use to the genealogist. All of the personal types of insurance available for sickness, disability, death and provision for dependents have been grouped into one section titled development of life assurance, again with an emphasis on records useful to the family historian.

Development of Marine Insurance
The concept of property insurance goes back five millennia to the Chinese and then to Babylonian shipping merchants from 1800 BC. Marine insurance developed in the Middle Ages in Europe in response to similar shipping losses caused by piracy, theft and shipwreck. The Italian Lombard merchants’ device of sending their combined merchandise divided amongst several ships formed the basis for spreading risks. In the mid-16th century these forms of contract were being used in England but there were only 30 sworn brokers in London by 1574.

Lloyd’s coffee house in London became the meeting place for marine insurers in the 1690s, although other risks were accepted. Until 1993 these insurers, or Lloyd’s names, had unlimited liability, meeting the full cost of any loss personally.

However, by the mid-19th century most insurers formed companies of limited liability. Insurers invested the premiums they received in loans and mortgages, for example to landowners enclosing land in the 18th century; and more recently in stocks, shares and property developments.

There were also clubs formed by ship owners for mutual insurance, such as the collier fleets of northern England and the fishing-boat owners in the south-west.

Records of Marine Insurance
Marine insurers required detailed information about the vessels and the people owning and running them so their archives reflect this. From the early 18th-century underwriters recorded their annual insurances in small, portable registers known as risk books. These may record the date, sum insured, insurer, vessel, master, voyage, premium rate and percentage insured. Later risk books include the placing broker’s name and a description of the cargoes. Some examples are shown below.

Chart: Marine Insurance Risk Book Entries for 1725 (data from Cockerell and Green)

Insurance companies also have records of payments for wrecks and damaged or lost goods. The role of insurance companies in setting up a system of qualification by certificate for fishermen is the subject of a substantial article by O’Driscoll (A Vital Piece of Paper. Bygone Kent Vol. 24 #10, page 598-604).

Development of Fire Insurance
The fire insurance business relies on systematic knowledge of the incidences of loss, with wooden, thatched buildings crowded together in towns being high risks. The Great Fire of London in 1666 provided impetus for the growth of fire insurance; the first company was started in 1681 in London by Nicholas Barbon. The London companies had branches in most major towns, (the Sun Fire Office had 50 agencies in 1740 and 135 by 1790), but there were also provincial companies who only did regional business; by 1790 independent fire offices had opened in Worcester, Bath and Leeds.

All these companies encouraged better building methods and kept records of the construction details of their insured properties, as well as developing improved firefighting methods. Cockerell and Green (The British Insurance Business, 1994) have an extensive history of the different companies, their mergers and how they operated. Each company identified its insured buildings by affixing fire marks to them, cast-iron plates about 6" wide and painted or gilded. Many can still be seen on buildings in England today, and illustrations found.

Each company had its own private fire brigade and at first these only attempted to quench fires for their own company’s clients. Later, insurers realized that their investments would be better protected if they pooled their resources and shared the firefighting work.

Records of Fire Insurance
Jenkins has pointed out that during the later 18th and first half of the 19th centuries insurance did not only apply to the urban affluent. Agents were active all over the country, and it was often a condition of tenancy on large estates that the tenant take out insurance on his rented property. Fire and contents insurance was often added since premiums were low at that time.

The client (confusingly formerly called the insurer, but later the insured) paid his premium and received a policy or certificate, the details of which were entered in the company’s registers. Only a few original certificates still exist but the company registers have survived in much greater numbers. Some examples of certificates include:


 * An actual policy for the Wesleyan Chapel, Salt Lane, Salisbury is filmed on.
 * Original certificates offered by auctioneers, like this one:

A major depository of fire insurance records is the Guildhall Library since it is the local record office for the City of London where most insurance companies were based. It holds records for 80 of them, half of which were involved in fire insurance, notably the Hand-in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Company (established 1696), the Sun (Fire) Insurance Office (founded 1710), and theRoyal Exchange Assurance established in 1720. The Sun Fire Insurance Company has extensive records—over 2.2 million policies between 1710 and 1863, which the London Archives Users Forum (LAUF) is indexing. So far, over 50,000 policies from 1816-1824 mainly in the London area are at The Place in the Sun index online at Guildhall does have other name indexes for 1714-1731 and 1775-1787, the latter also including the Royal Exchange.

The Guildhall Library has a useful Leaflet Guide to Records online. Guidance for using the index can be found on their website and indexes include:


 * Date and number of the policy.


 * Insured’s name and address


 * Insured’s occupation or status; policies held by one man will indicate if he combined several occupations, and give an idea of which was the most profitable business.


 * Any special capacity in which the policy was taken out (e.g. as executor or trustee, or names and occupations of tenants).


 * Names and occupations of other people mentioned.


 * Location of the property insured, which might be land or chattels, is given where it differs from the address of the policyholder and is sufficiently specific. Location will be exact and show nearby properties, often with a plan attached which is especially useful for the period before detailed estate or tithe maps.


 * Names of insured vessels, with their masters.

Examples from the Sun Fire Office Policy index given in the following charts give valuable information and invite further investigation into the original documents as well as into wills, trade directories, land tax records, detailed maps and later census and poll books. The policies themselves are likely to contain detailed plans and structural descriptions of the property and its value, the premium paid, renewal date and various endorsements.

Chart: Dashwoods from Index to Records of Sun Fire Office  (MS 11936)

Robert HEICS and James MP are brothers, Richard is of the Norfolk branch, but Matilda is new to me—I wonder who she is?

Fire insurance companies have been using their own unique maps for identifying fire risks of buildings for over 250 years. These very large-scale plans contain information on boundaries of buildings, number of stories, position of skylights, construction materials and a wealth of other practical information. They can give a good impression of working conditions. At first each fire insurance company drew up its own plans but from 1886 to 1970 the firm of Charles E. Goad Ltd supplied them to all companies, usually at the scale of 1:480 (1 inch to 40 feet).

Chart: Remnants from Index to Records of Sun Fire Office (MS 11936)

One wonders whether Samuel is just one man or a father and son. Is there just one man named James who moved around, or more than one?

Neaverson provides more details on available plans, with a list of towns and dates covered. A set of Goad’s plans for most of the important towns and cities of the British Isles is at the British Library on microfilm and indexed, thus copies can be requested. Further information and an example are on their website. The Guildhall Library has the plans for the City of London for a selection of dates.

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Taxes, Lists, Business, Electoral and Insurance Records offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.

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