The propositions were as follows:

Propositions touching the prevention of fires in London and the parts and suburbs

thereof.

The owners or inhabitants of houses within the Citty and suburbs of London, together with the Citty of Westminster and Borrough of Southwake, paying 12 pence per annum for every house yielding 20l. yearly rent, if more or less after the rate of 12 pence yearly for every 207.: shall have his house or houses re-edified according to His Majesty's proclamation, and sett in as good or better state as they were before in case any loss or casualtie by fire shall happen unto them. For security hereof, there shall be deposited 5,000l. into the Chamber of London which shall continually lay wholly and entire to receive for interest 57. in the 100%, which increase shall runne untill it shall amount to 10,000l. And there shall also be kept a continual watch in all parts of the Citty and suburbs all night, that if any fire should break forth it may presently be espied. And engines shall be made and kept in every ward thereof to be ready at hand for the quenching of the same, and the watch brought speedily to the fire, and those severall watchers in every ward shall speedily repayre themselves to assist where the fire shall be. Reserves of water shall be made in convenient places for sudden use.

From hence will arise great profitt, comfort and safety to the inhabitants and to their landlords, for many times a poor man's house is burnt, being all his livelihood, being not able to buyld it again, and soe utterly undone, whereupon divers briefs are granted, which by this means would be prevented. And if any house be on fire, the terrour thereof causing the neighbours adjacent to cast their goods into the street, whereby they are exposed to great loss which shall be guarded by the watch, or which by God's blessing and this extraordinary care may be much prevented. Besides in regard of the continual watch which shall be going through all the streets and lanes, etc., will hinder ill-disposed persons from breaking into houses and warehouses, and also prevent many murthers and other harms which befall many in the night time. And there shall also be allowed 2007. per annum towards the rebuilding the steeple of Saint Paules Church until finished.

At the Court at Whitehall, I May, 1638, the petition and propositions were referred to Mr. Attorney General, who on 4 August following, reported :

"I doe humbly consider the said propositions reasonable, if the petitioners according to theyre offer be tyed to theyre limitations, and that no man be pressed to come in to subscribe, but every man left to his voluntary choyce, etc. "All which I humbly submit to His Majesty's great wisdom.

"(Signed) Jo. BANKES."

Att the Court att Whitehall, 16 October, 1638 :—

"His Majesty is pleased to grant the petitioners a Pattent according to their petition and propositions, with the limitations in this Certificate mentioned; and Mr. Attorney General is forthwith to prepare a Bill for his Majesty's signature accordingly, for which this shall be his warrant.

“(Signed) FRAN. WINDEBANK.”

Nothing further is known of this scheme, which probably passed into oblivion in consequence of the troubles which soon began.

1660.

From A Second Letter to M. T., referred to in the paper war between the Fire Office and the Corporation of London, we learn that soon after the Restoration, a scheme of Fire Insurance was set on foot by "several persons of quality and eminent citizens of London."

From that Letter it appears that the Corporation claimed this Scheme to be the foundation of their own of 1681.

It may be a question whether the Office of Ensurance referred to by Londinophilus (1672) and the Schemes of Benjamin De Laune (16681670), and Deputy Newbold (1674), may not have had some connection with the project here referred to.

1662.

Walford says that in this year was published anonymously a pamphlet entitled, A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions.

2

We have not found any copy of an earlier date than 1667, which apparently was the first edition; and although it was published anonymously, the name of Sir William Petty is recorded (in MS.) on the title page as that of the author.

In Chap. VI. p. 34, there is the following allusion to Fire Insurance:"Like the Ensurance in some Countries of Houses from Fires for a certain small part of their yearly Rent."

These lines appear to establish two facts :

(1) That Fire Insurance did not exist in Great Britain; (2) That it did exist elsewhere.

It was not unknown in Germany, in individual towns, in the form now so generally known as Feuer Cassen, or Municipal Insurance.

Mr. D. A. Heald, now President of the Home Fire Insurance Company of New York, in the interesting article "Fire Insurance" in Hine's Insurance Bluebook for 1874, says: "The early history of Fire Insurance, if indeed it can be said to have had any well-defined existence before the Great Fire of London in 1666, is involved in much obscurity. It seems to be an admitted fact that the practice of individual underwriting prevailed at a much earlier date among the Lombards in Italy, and the merchants of the commercial and free cities bordering on the German Ocean. This form of underwriting, being of a personal or private character, has left little or no evidence of its existence, much less of the principles on which it was conducted, or the results obtained by the underwriter." (Walford).

816 m. 10

1 Brit. Mus.,

80

2 Brit. Mus., 601, f. 16.

3 There may have been an edition of 1662 unknown to us, for Walford in his quotation spells the word "Countreys."

N

CHAPTER II.

FIRE OF LONDON.

2 September, 1666.

O allusion has been traced in the Accounts of this Calamity to the circumstance of any of the property having been covered by Insurance, a fact which doubtless would not have escaped notice had any of the owners of property destroyed been so protected. We think this is the most conclusive evidence that Fire Insurance had not begun to be practised in England.

The extent of the damage done by the Fire has been variously estimated.

De Laune, in his Present State of London, states that within the City Walls there were 460 acres, and the Fire devastated 373; whilst without the Walls, it devastated 63 acres, 3 roods.

Out of 15,000 houses, 13,200 were destroyed, besides public buildings. Maitland states that the loss was estimated at 10,730,500l. Another account sets the loss at 10,716,000/

The details of the damage done are stated as follows:

In a pamphlet, Observations on the Fire of London, by Rege Sencera, 1667, in Harleian Miscellanies, iii. 295-390,1 the loss is stated as follows:

Whilst another account, without specifying any amount, gives the following additional particulars.

1 Brit. Mus., 2072 d.

Out of 26 Wards, 15 were destroyed;

the remainder scorched, ruinous, and uninhabitable.
400 Streets destroyed;

also 89 (not 87) Churches.

Schools, Hospitals, and Libraries.

In addition to the losses above stated, it was estimated that Public Works enjoined by Act of Parliament; viz., A Canal from the Thames to Holborn Bridge would cost 27,000l. A Monument, 14,500/

There was also an Item

For Ground taken away for making Streets, etc., besides amelioration. but no amount specified.

One Sir Robert Jeffery, Alderman, was supposed to have lost Tobacco valued at 20,000l.

A long Account of the Fire will be found in Insurance Cyclopædia, iv. pp. 31-43.

There can be no doubt that it was this calamity which led to the serious consideration of the subject of Fire Insurance, which resulted in the production of a Scheme in the following year.

An Act was speedily passed, 19 Car. II., c. 2, "for erecting a Judicature for determination of differences touching houses burned or demolished by reason of the late Fire which happened in London.”

The records of the Court, its orders, judgments, and decrees, are still in possession of the Corporation of London.1

Maitland stated that the powers of the Court expired, but were revived by Parliament for settling contests respecting 900 Sites of Houses yet unbuilt on, proving that all the rest were rebuilt before 1673.

Immediately after the Fire, the 10 October 1666 was appointed for a day of humiliation and fasting throughout England and Wales.

When the above-mentioned Act was passed, the 2nd September was appointed as a day of humiliation in the City yearly for ever (unless on a Sunday), that the said Citizens and their Successors for all the time to come, may retain the memorial of so sad a desolation, and reflect seriously upon their manifold iniquities, which are the unhappy causes of such judgments.

The writer has seen various lists of Forms of Prayer to be used on such fast days, and of Sermons preached, extending down to the year 1781.

1 Ins. Cyclo., iii. 332. Fire Decrees.