Hand-in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Society material

Hand In Hand Fire & Life Insurance SocietyEstablished in London by deed of constitution on 12 November 1696 as Contributors for insuring houses, chambers, or rooms, from loss by fire by amicable contribution. Renamed 1706 as Amicable Contributors (or contributionship) for insuring for loss by fire and known as Hand in Hand Fire Office by 1720. It became The Hand-in-Hand Contributionship or Society for the Insurance of Houses and Goods from Loss or Damage by Fire in 1805. Its title was officially changed to the Hand-in-Hand Fire and Life Insurance Society with the commencement of life business under a deed of settlement dated 12 July 1836. Assets and business were transferred to Commercial Union under the Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd. Act which received royal assent in June 1905 at which point the company was dissolved.

Subsidiaries/ConstituentsRossendale Mutual Fire (1876-1887)

BusinessEstablished, at a meeting in Tom's coffee house St Martin's Lane near Charing Cross London, to offer insurance against fire on property. Two fire offices, the Fire Office and the Friendly Society, already existed by this date but this was the first established on the mutual principal and from 1730, when they wound up, it became the oldest surviving fire office. By 12 January 1696 [still using Julian Calendar so really 1697] the mark of the society had been chosen "two handes joined with a crown over them" which became so well recognised that the society soon became known as the Hand-in-Hand and eventually changed its name to suit.

In May 1697 the first loss, £1 12 shillings, was settled on two houses in St Stephen's Alley, St Margaret's parish.

In March 1698 the society realised the need for somewhere to keep valuable items like exchequer bills and petty cash and the minutes record that an iron chest, which is still in the archive today, be ordered with three locks "for ye keeping and preserving all money; writeings and other effects".

In 1699 the company began to employ watermen to act as firemen. Initially six watermen were employed and given blue uniforms lined with red. The names and addresses of the members of this fire brigade were listed so that policy holders would know who to turn to for help in the event of a fire. The society was one of the first insurance companies to have a fire engine of its own, ordering its first engine in 1716 to supplement the fire buckets, crow bars and axes already in use.

In 1714 the Union Assurance Society [as CGNU Underwriting Ltd.] (Union) was formed and agreements were made between the two companies that Hand-in-Hand would insure only houses and Union only contents, a situation which continued until 1805. After 1805 the society began to insure not just buildings from fire but also goods, merchandise and stock in trade and extended its business outside London for the first time.

In 1836 the society commenced writing life insurance and offering annuities.

Staff/ OfficialsDirectors (1846)William Ashley, Sir Felix Booth, The Hon Sir Edward Cust, John Lettson Elliot, James Esdaile, John Gurney Hoare, E Fuller Maitland, Peter Martineau, The Hon. Charles J Murray, William Scott, John Sperling, Henry Waymouth, Henry Wilson, Robert Winter, William Wix

Secretary (originally called clerk, then senior or chief clerk)Rowland Reynolds (1696 - 1705)John Walton (1705 - 1710)John Hankinson (1710 - 1713)John Hughes (1713 - 1716)William Taylor (1716 - 1730)John Mann (1730 - 1776)Benjamin Rouse (1776 - 1814)Benjamin Rouse junior (1814 - 1829)G N Lyon (1829 - 1833)Robert Steven (1833 - 1851)Richard Ray (1851 - 1865)J M Terry (1865 - 1872)Benjamin Blenkinsop (1872 - 1903) ( and manager)Herbert Cecil Thiselton (1903 - 1905)

Head office premises - LondonTom's Coffee House, St Martin's Lane (1696 - 1711)Angel Court Snow Hill (1711 - 1792)New Bridge Street (1792 - 1874) Spiers & Pond's, Picadilly Circus (temporary offices while new offices built) (1874 - 1876)26 New Bridge Street (1876 - 1905)

Home branches and agenciesThe society did not extend its business beyond London until 1805 and a year later was still rejecting the idea of agencies.Birmingham (by 1903)Bristol (by 1903)Dundee (by 1903)Glasgow (by 1903)Leeds (by 1903)Liverpool (by 1903)Manchester (by 1903)Newcastle (by 1903)Bacup (by 1903)Ipswich (by 1903)Leicester (1903)

Overseas branches and agencies

Published HistoryHand in Hand - the story of The Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society 1696 - 1996 by Brian Henham, (Spellmount Publishers, Kent, 1996)

Material heldBoard minutes (1696 - 1708), policies, ephemera, branded material, acts, deeds of settlement, policy book, prospectuses, directors' lists, portraits, fire marks, uniform arm badges, ceremonial mace, iron chest.

Date range 1696 - 1905

LinksPembroke archive - agent's bookGuildhall library - constitutional documents, policy registers, financial material, minutes, letter books etc

Interesting storiesCornelius Walford in his Insurance Cyclopaedia of 1878 claims Daniel Defoe was involved in the establishment of the society but no evidence has been found to support this.

In 1707 the society insured Schomberg House later the Hand-in-Hand office of the Commercial Union. The building had a very interesting history having been occupied by Thomas Gainsborough between 1774 and 1788 and been home to royalty in the form of Princesses Marie Louise and Helena Victoria and Princes Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. More scandalously it was also occupied by the quack Dr Graham who renamed it the Temple of Health and Hymen where he rented out a 'celestial' bed for the procreation of perfect children and ran an illegal gambling den.

In 1710 the society insured house of Robert Walpole later Britain's first prime minister

In 1711 insured house of famous woodcarver and stone mason Grinling Gibbons http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp01758

In 1713 John Hankinson, head clerk in 1713, admitted to owing the society £1054 and was dismissed

In 1717 the society insured a house belonging to Sir Isaac Newton

In 1724 the society insured Guy's Hospital, London

In 1725 the society insured the Theatre Royal, Drury lane

In 1740 Archbishop of Canterbury insured Lambeth Palace with the society

In 1741 the society insured the Opera House, Haymarket

In 1750 Samuel Whitbread's brewery at Chiswell Street was first insured by the society

By the mid 18th century new policy holders included: Dukes of Ancaster, Beaufort, Bedford, Bolton, Bridgewater, Devonshire, Grafton, Harvey, Kent, Montague, Newcastle, Noroflk, Queensbury and St Albans, the lords Carmarthen, Castlemaine, Falmouth, Falkenberg, Grantham, Grandison, Hamilton, Palmerston and Tyrconnell and the Earls of Albermarle, Aylesbury, Berkley, Clanrickard, Coventry, Holderness, Rockingham, Scarsdale, Tankerville. Bishops of Bristol, Durham, Ely, Worcester.

In May 1758 the society insured the temporary London bridge following a fire which burned down the original temporary bridge

In 1817 the Duke of Wellington insured Apsley House, known as No. 1 London, with the society http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.12679

In 1819 the society insured Booths distillery, later famous for the production of gin

In 1818 the society was insuring both auctioneer Mr Sotheby and his competitor Mr Christie

In 1752 the society insured Samuel Johnson's house [dictionary man] http://www.drjohnsonshouse.org/

The poet Cowper refers to the society in his poem Friendship of 1872 "A friendship that I frequent fitsOf controversial rage emitsThe sparks of disputation,Like Hand-in-Hand insurance plates,Most unavoidably createsThe thoughts of conflagration"