Rare Document From the First Modern Fire Insurance Company

London: Printed by Tho. Milbourn...for the Gentlemen of the Insurance Office on the Back-side of the Royal-Exchange, 1682. Printed folio sheet, 13 1/8 x 8 1/8 in. (333 x 206 mm). Initialed on verso, "A.M." Crease from old fold, small small in right edge, now repaired with tape; scattered light spotting. See Nicholas Barbon--Founder of Modern Fire Insurance (The Review of Insurance Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Jun., 1954, pp. 44-47); Wing T-81

A rare document issued by the first modern fire insurance company.

The Insurance Office was established in 1667 at the rear of London's Royal-Exchange by writer and economist Nicolas Barbon, only a year after the devastating Great Fire of London. In 1680, Barbon, along with three associates, formed this into the first joint-stock insurance company, called "The Fire Office", and issued their first fire insurance policy the following year. This document, printed a year later, delineates their policy and rates for timber and brick households, "to be paid as often as the House is Burnt down, or Demolished, within the Term Insured. If Damaged, then to be Repaired." The scheme initially sought to insure 5,000 homes, and by 1684 4,000 houses had been insured for an aggregate premium of £18,000, while £7,000 had been paid out in claims.

RBH locates only one other example ever offered at auction.