Shewing The Rate of Insuring Houses from One Year to Eleven: at the Fire-Office

One of the huge problems after the Great Fire of London in 1666 was that no one had fire insurance so people had to find the money themselves to rebuild their homes. In 1680 the first insurance company, the Fire Office, was set up by Nicholas Barbon. Barbon was a building entrepreneur who'd made a great deal of money during the rebuilding of London. This document lists the different rates of insurance provided by the Fire Office in 1698. It shows that it cost six shillings for one year's insurance on a brick house and that the cost was doubled for a timber house (presumably because the risk of fire was much greater). Customers got a discount if they insured their properties for four or more years. People could buy insurance from the Fire Office at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill or the Rainbow coffee house on Fleet Street. By 1690, one in ten houses in London was insured.