Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor
HTML Transcription
© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
This insurance company published the resolutions of its establishment meeting at the Club Room in Society Lane, Douglas in the Manks Advertiser of 21 May 1818. It offered a standard return of an annuity of £12 British per year to members paying monthly contributions of one shilling for a period of 21 years in a manner which included the social ritual of the Friendly Society's club night. Can this possibly have been considered an attraction in conviviality for depositors on the brink of achieving some measure of a basic assured income?. Appealing to a more affluent member of society than a working person with the need for payments in times of sickness and unemployment, it also invited the participation of women. They were not required to attend monthly club nights in person so long as their contributions were kept up, a device whereby the male conviviality of the club night could be preserved.
This commercial rather than mutuality-based society,with an establishing committee comprising Manxmen and expatriates of no known particular significance, does not conform to the strict definition of an association, but it has been included as an interesting hybrid form made by grafting the key convivial mechanism of the voluntary society on to an essentially impersonal contract.
There are no further indexed references to this particular enterprise. From 1800 onwards there are a considerable number of well-established British companies operating in all fields of insurance, who would have provided serious opposition.
M.N.H.L., Isle of Man newspapers, ut supra ;
Index to Newspapers, Trades - Insurance
...
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
The Editor |
||