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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Other Subjects

Jack Israel Ltd

Jack Israel Ltd

Trader at Covent Garden Market at its original site.

Group, Commerce

1 memorial
Business Design Centre

Business Design Centre

An exhibition venue and conference centre with showrooms and offices, in Upper Street Islington. The Business Design Centre is a Grade II listed building, which was originally opened, on Liverpool...

Group, Commerce, Craft / Design

1 memorial
John Dickinson

John Dickinson

Worked for the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. Was on the building committee for the Abbey Wood branch in 1912.

Person, Commerce, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Pasqua Rosee's Head

Pasqua Rosee's Head

First London coffee house, opened by Pasqua Rosée.  The Telegraph produced a good article about coffee houses in London.

Place, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Women’s Transport Service (FANY)

Women’s Transport Service (FANY)

All-women unit, affiliated to the TA, formed as the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and active in both nursing and intelligence work during WW1 and WW2.  The original role was to ride horseback (hence "...

Group, Armed Forces, Espionage, Medicine

1 memorial
Claire Hitier-Abadie

Claire Hitier-Abadie

36-year-old French national, lived in Marylebone with her husband and 2 children.  Riding a Boris bike, killed by a Crossrail tipper truck turning left on top of her at the Victoria Street / Bresse...

Person, Cyclist, Tragedy, France

1 memorial
Stratford Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd

Stratford Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd

The picture shows the first premises of this organisation, before they moved in, at the corner of Falmouth Street and Maryland Street in Stratford.  Started by a group of men at Stratford Railway W...

Group, Politics & Administration, Social Welfare

1 memorial