Concept    From 1762 

scientific life assurance

Categories: Commerce, Science

Equitable Life, the world's oldest mutual insurer, started business in 1762 in the parsonage of St Nicholas Acons in Nicholas Lane. It pioneered scientific life assurance by basing premiums on age and mortality rates.

Elsewhere Dr Richard Price (1723 - 1791) is credited with having founded actuarial science.  He was also the radical minister at the Dissenters' church on Newington Green (inside which there is a plaque) where he met and influenced Mary Wollstonecraft, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Joseph Priestley, etc.  Roberta Wedge, author of the blog A Vindication of the Rights of Mary, offered to see if there was a connection between Price and the parsonage “where scientific life assurance began in 1762”.   Roberta found in The Actuarial Profession reference to a report Price produced in 1774, “one of the key documents in the history of actuarial science”.  This report was addressed to the Society’s directors.  She also discovered a readable history, as a slideshow with lecturer's notes, which says Price was a consultant to the Society from 1770 onwards. The Society's first actuary was appointed on the recommendation of Price; William Morgan, who put his stamp on the organisation while serving from 1775 to 1830, was Price's nephew. 

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
scientific life assurance

Commemorated ati

St Nicholas Acons parsonage

Site of the Parsonage of St Nicholas Acons where scientific life assurance be...

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Marsh & McLennan Companies

Marsh & McLennan Companies

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Bagnigge House

Bagnigge House

The house was built on the site of the, supposedly holy, Bagnigge Wells (mineral springs) in 1678.  Nell Gwynne was supposed to have lived in this house. The picture shows the house c. 1790. In th...

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1 memorial
The Three Cripples public house

The Three Cripples public house

Pub in Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist".

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1 memorial
Moxhay's Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street

Moxhay's Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street

From British History: The Hall of Commerce, existing some years ago in Threadneedle Street, was begun in 1830 by Mr. Edward Moxhay, a speculative biscuit-baker, on the site of the old French church...

Building, Architecture, Commerce

1 memorial
Samuel Jones and Company

Samuel Jones and Company

A stationery firm founded in 1810 by Edward Jones. A Museum of London photo shows one of their products, captioned: "Reel of 'Nulli Secundus' adhesive mending tape stored within a tin reel with a c...

Group, Commerce

1 memorial