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. 

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

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...

Read More

Other Subjects

Morris Singer Foundry

Morris Singer Foundry

Founded by John Webb Singer as the Frome Art Metal Works. Cast many of the best known sculptures in London, including the statue of Justice on the Central Criminal Court, 1906. Merged with the Morr...

Place, Commerce, Craft / Design

22 memorials
Sir Horatio Grece Regnart

Sir Horatio Grece Regnart

Born Jersey. Aged 15 joined John Maples, Furniture dealer, and progressed to being vice-president of of the store in Tottenham Court Road. 1870 married. Alderman of St Pancras Borough Council. Live...

Person, Benefactor, Commerce, Politics & Administration, Channel Islands

2 memorials
Marmaduke Langdale

Marmaduke Langdale

Active in 1859. Via JudyGr we found "1794: Langdale Marmaduke & Thomas, Distillers, 26, Holborn", mentioned in Dickens' 'Barnaby Rudge'. A connection seems very likely. 2018: The British Museu...

Person, Benefactor, Commerce

1 memorial
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal

Trustee of The Memorial Gates Trust. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on 15 June 1950 in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India. Our Picture Source gives details about the life of this man.

Person, Benefactor, Commerce, Politics & Administration, India

1 memorial