Thomas Richards and the Founding of the Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance Society 1824

 

The larger & more imposing the Advertisement … the better.

The Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance Society was created in 1824 and is going strong two hundred years later though the “clerical” of the original name is now unlikely to be understood as referring to the clergy. This letter is addressed to Joseph, brother of Dr George Pinckard who was the driving force behind the creation of the company. Joseph became its first Secretary and Actuary. The address is that of the original headquarters at 32 Great Russell Street, close to the British Museum.

For the entire nineteenth century no one, even and perhaps especially if young, could feel assured that they would celebrate their next birthday or that they would be able to support themselves in an unexpectedly long life. Childbirth, Cholera, Consumption, Diseases of Childhood, Small Pox, Typhus, all took their toll along with the grim reapings of other diseases which we would now regard as no more than fairly ordinary illnesses. It was in that context together with cheaper communications and modest affluence for many that assurance became popular, either to secure a single payment at death which would at least pay for the funeral or as a single large payment now in return for a lifetime annuity to commence immediately and continue until death. Or both.

The Society recruited some of its directors and shareholders privately before announcing itself and initially employed just two travelling canvassers to expand its base and secure purchasers of policies. One of them was the Thomas Richards who writes the letter transcribed below where he reports in detail on what he has accomplished in Bath, a city of the well-off and well supplied with doctors and clergymen. His letter is dated September 1824 which will shortly prove significant.

In his 1924 centenary history of the Society published in an attractive leather-bound volume, the then General Manager and Actuary, A D Besant, quotes in full the Prospectus sent out in April 1824 to potential purchasers of shares in the new Society; it’s signed by Richards who is identified as its provisional Secretary. Later, Richards appears in Besant’s chapter on “Early Canvassers” where he records a stormy relationship between Richards and the Board which he reckons to have been terminated sometime in the summer of 1824; he judges Richards to have been lacking in “any special aptitude for the work”. This letter suggests otherwise.

Besant has previously reproduced in full a nineteen-point set of instructions intended for canvassers which is dated 22 September; point 17 sets out commission rates for Agents, something which Richards requests in this letter of 14 September. That’s one reason why I think Besant did not have this letter available to him; he notes at the outset that he has only “scanty” material for reconstructing the early history of the Society. So how is it that I have the letter, extracted from a dealer stock sold in Australia two hundred years later? It was very common in the past as now for large businesses to make room for new paperwork by clearing out old, quite often when moving premises. The Norwich Union (now Aviva) founded in 1797 did it and probably repeatedly – the 19th century printed questionnaires which doctors returned to the Union with assessments of the health of a person seeking life assurance are easily acquired. I have seen dozens so there must be thousands out there; this extract from a completed questionnaire is dated 1824 the same year as the Clerical and Medical launched; the questions asked are almost identical to those posed by the Clerical and Medical which may well have borrowed them. From what happened to Norwich Union archives I infer that the Clerical Medical also had clear outs, before Mr Besant’s book was written and probably long before anyone thought about recording the Society’s development. But Besant’s work does allow me to divert to a horrible history.

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The April 1824 Prospectus includes a list of Gentlemen who have “expressed their Intention of honoring the Society with their Patronage”; the list is headed by Sir Henry Halford, Bt., M.D.  In 1813 during renovations to Windsor Castle a coffin was discovered which, from outward indications, looked as if it might well contain the missing remains of King Charles the First. The coffin was duly opened in the presence of the Prince Regent. The King’s physician, Sir Henry Halford, conducted an examination of the contents which did indeed comprise the body of a man with a severed head and other features which distinguished the missing Charles. Sir Henry duly wrote up and published his findings, but omitted one curious part of the story. In the course of poking around in the remains of Charles the First, Sir Henry removed (1) part of the vertebra on which the axe had fallen; (2) a lock of hair; (3) a trimming from the beard; (4) a tooth. He had a box made to contain these items and at dinner parties would pass round these invitations to a beheading for curious examination by his guests. No one outed him until 1874, thirty years after his death. His inheritors delayed until 1888 before grudgingly returning to Windsor Castle the missing bits.

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Transcription

Addressed to: Joseph Pinckard Esq   32 Great Russell Street   Bloomsbury   London

Datelined: 1 Chandos Buildings Bath Septr. 14 1824

Sir

My reason for not writing to you before originated in the idea that I should be able to send you more satisfactory information if I deferred the task till this morning particularly as I was aware that the Directors would receive the particulars of my visit on Wednesday.

I arrived here too late Saturday to do much and had only time to call upon some gentlemen in the evening most of whom were out and those which I did see gave me no definite answer. I have since been more successful and have seen Dr Gillies who will be a shareholder and Director. Mr Tudor who will, most likely, the same and Dr Moodie who will call upon you in London in a short time as will Dr Gillies and a Mr Dulhenite who was surgeon to the Hospital at Plymouth with Mr Geo. Vance who is with us. Mr D will most likely become a subscriber. Dr Crawford has declined so has Mr Spry. But they will they say both use their influence. Mr Upham has been exerting himself but the clergymen are mostly out of Bath, at least those who could afford to invest money. Mr U has not yet determined whether he will take shares or insure. Some others whose names I need not mention will be found in my Journal have declined for the present.

I am strongly advised to have some Advertisements inserted in the Bath and Bristol papers. I may, therefore beg of you to forward to me a form for such an Insertion. I should suggest that the Agents name should be mentioned but not at present the names of the Provisional Directors only mentioning that such an appointment is in contemplation. The larger and more imposing the Advert’t can be made the better.

I wish also to have the exact amount of the Commissions allowed to Agents: this is absolutely necessary. Will you also give me the name of the person who wrote about the agency at Bridgewater?

With regard to the P [Provisional] Directors perhaps a Resolution made at the Board with a code of Rules (a copy of which I enclose) had better be forwarded to Upham unless the Directors should deem it expedient for me to remain here and forward … which I think would be a useless delay. The names that I have got for Bath Directors are

Gillies, James M.D. &c

George, R.F. Esq

Norman, Geo Esq

Soden J S Esq

But as Tudor or Stockwell or perhaps both may join us it will perhaps be better to wait altho’ these may now be nominated and the other afterwards. This of course I leave to the discretion of the Directors. I propose going to Bristol this afternoon to see what Richardson has done and to know about our Directory there but I can do little more at Bath – I have however two … persons to see and shall hope to conclude everything here and at Bristol this week.

I shall be obliged if you will forward to me the Letter which Mr Earle may have sent and a pacquet I expected from a friend who is well acquainted with the Medical gentlemen at Plymouth & Devonport.

I will write to you again on Thursday or Friday and in the meantime remain

Yout very obedt. Humble Servt,  T  Richards

PS You may address your letter & parcels to 1 Chandos Buildings where I now am. Should I call upon the Bishop of Bath [letter torn here] if he be at Wells? [The bishop’s full title is Bishop of Bath and Wells] Perhaps the Directors think it best to invest me with an [torn here] communication? [the meaning here is probably that a letter of introduction should be provided]

PS Dr Sir, I shall be glad if you can send me £10 more   that it may carry me to Exeter for I would rather have it sent here than to the Post Office of any of the intermediate towns. Faithfully yours T. R.

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References

A. D. Besant, Our Centenary: Being the History of the First Hundred Years of the Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance Society (1924)

Crystal B Lake, Artifacts (2020), 182-85 for the Charles the First story. I have used it previously to illustrate an argument about collectors and collecting; see my Nabokov’s Dream (2023)