| Fire Insurance
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| Before the advent of fire insurance, the only assistance available
to the owner of a property damaged by fire was though a 'Brief' in church.
The parson drew the parishioners' attention each Sunday to specific causes
of want or hardship in the parish in the hope that his flock would help the
needy financially. Naturally, this was totally inadequate in the event of a
large fire, and most of the loss had to be borne by the unfortunate owner
of the damaged property.
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In the reign of Charles II the disasterous losses resulting from the great
Fire of London in 1666 bought into being the first societies for insurance
against loss or damage of property by fire, and by the end of the
seventeenth century three London societies were actively engaged in the
business: the Fire Office, later known as the Phenix Fire Office,
established in 1680; the Friendly Society, established in 1683; and the
Amicable Contributors for Insuring Loss by Fire, later known as the Hand
in Hand, established in 1696.
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A number of new fire insurance companies were established in the early part
of the eighteenth century, most of they having their offices in the London
area. Eight of these survived the scandalous situation that was revealed when
the financial crash of the South Sea Company brought to light many
fraudulent joint-stock companies, some connected with insurance, which
became known as 'bubbles'; this culminated in the Bubble Act of 1720, which
was aimed at preventing the raising of stock capital by means of
transferable shares.
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In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the only means of comunication
between different parts of Great Britain were stagecoach or horseback. It is
not suprising, therefore, that at first very little fire insurance was
transacted outside the city or town in which a company's office was situated.
As communications improved towards the later part of the eighteenth century,
the business activities of the fire insurance companies began to spread into
all parts of the British Isles, and new companies were started by local
businessmen in many provincial cities and towns.
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Many of these early fire insurance companies were small concerns depending on
local support for their success; some of the companies were successful and
were able to extend their activities over a greater area, while others,
unable to attract any great measure of support, soon found themselves unable
to continue in business and ceased to operate.
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| Reproduced, with permission, from the book
'The British Fire Mark 1680-1879' by Brian Wright.
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