Jewish Surnames in London-Registered Insurance Policies
25,671 RecordsInsurance Policies · London
Background
The dataset presented here represents the fruit of many years of scrupulous research by the late George Rigal, who died in 2012. It covers over 26,000 insurance policies taken out between about the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries by people whose surnames suggest they were Jewish. The entries list not just the policy numbers — important for deeper research — but, wherever noted on the policy, the policy-holder’s address and occupation along with names of family members, trading partners and suchlike.
When he compiled his dataset, George was using insurance records held by the Guildhall Library in London. All of these have since been transferred to the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). Any researcher wishing to look at the primary sources should contact the LMA with the relevant details.
George chose carefully the words “Jewish surnames” in the title of his work. There is no guarantee that all the people listed were Jewish, on any definition. In some cases, either the presence of a “Jews Clause” on the insurance policy or wider knowledge about the person will have confirmed their Jewish status. In most cases, though, all George was able to do was apply an educated guess. But his guesses were very educated, and it can be assumed that the very great majority of individuals listed were indeed Jewish.
Grouping Policies by Individual
Characteristic of George’s thoroughness was the attention he paid to grouping together insurance policies that had been taken out by a single person. This is far from straightforward. Many Jews in Britain at the time shared the same names and occupations. In this collection alone there are, for example, nine different men called Isaac Isaacs involved in the rag trade, and seven called Moses Levy who were watchmakers and/or jewellers. Moreover, quite often we find the same person’s name spelt in different ways over time, if not being changed altogether.
To get round these difficulties, George used evidence from the policies themselves and other sources to present together all the policies that can be confidently ascribed to a given individual. His groupings are reflected in this database by the use of common ID prefixes, in the format X1_1, X1_2, X1_3, for any individual holding several policies. Where two people with the same name and other similar data are not presented in this way as a single individual, it does not necessarily mean that they were different people, only that George himself had not found definitive evidence linking them.
The Jews Clause
Research Notes
How the text is arranged — notes by George Rigal
Surnames are arranged in alphabetical order. Where there are variations in the spelling of a surname they are amalgamated under the most common one with the variations noted. In the case of Solomon / Solomons / Salaman etc., the script makes it difficult to tell the spelling intended, so all the variations are grouped together under “Solomon” with the apparent reading of the surname noted.
Forenames for each surname are also arranged alphabetically. Where no forename is given, the entries are placed before those with known forenames. Partnerships and companies, which do not have forenames, have been dealt with in the same way. Policies that can be positively linked to each individual are grouped together. Where there are a number of individuals with the same name, they are placed in the sequence of the first date found for each person. Only policies which are linked by cross references are placed together within a group; where there is some doubt as to continuity, policies are separated and the forename repeated.
A number of people were insuring at more than one address. In such cases policies for each address are separated within the entry. Frequently there would be both a trading and a residential address or, alternatively, two trading addresses. Insurers of residential addresses are usually described as “Gent.” or “Gentlewoman”. All addresses where no town is given are in London.
When more than one name appears on a policy, details are given in the entry for each person. This text does not indicate the sequence of names, which is of interest as names normally are in order of seniority. Where a female policy holder marries and her policy is transferred to her husband, she has not been listed separately under her new married name.
Policy numbers, endorsements and survival of the registers
Policy numbers frequently repeat within a group for two entirely different reasons. Hand in Hand Insurance allocated a policy number to each house and it remained constant, normally being renewed every seven years, regardless of who was in occupation. The Sun insurance policy numbers stayed with the individual insurer and reappear in the endorsements as he or she moved from one address to another. The Sun had no fixed period for renewal.
Many policy registers and endorsement books have not survived, so many changes of address will have been omitted in the period up to 1815. Each endorsement is noted at the foot of the main policy entry as a figure group indicating the endorsement volume and page. The earliest policies are dated 1690 and policy ledgers are not available in most series after the mid 1860s. There is no indication on most policies as to how long they continued in force; from notes of claims on some policies, it can be seen that they continued for as long as sixty years from the date of issue.
How this online edition was prepared
George wanted to make his research widely available, but the formats he used were not easy to work with for purposes of publication. The editors have sought to reproduce as exactly as possible his original material, using as the starting point a high-quality — but never infallible — OCR program, and proof-checking extensively to minimise transcription errors. A few remaining errors are probably unavoidable: researchers are urged to check against the insurance documents themselves wherever practicable.
The editors have abstained from second-guessing in the rare cases where George’s material was unclear, preserving it just as he left it. An additional column for Editor’s Notes has been used sparingly to clarify issues that arise in converting it to a searchable online database. A small handful of cross-references have proved hard to match, but they have been left as found: they may serve as a clue, however imperfect, for the diligent researcher.
Appendices
Additional material is available in several appendices. The material there is not always linked to the main database, so it is worth examining the appendices separately; they can be browsed in their entirety.
Acknowledgements
George would have wished to thank most warmly the staff of the Guildhall Library for all their help over the years he was doing his research. The editors also thank them, along with the staff of the London Metropolitan Archives and the successors — Aviva, AXA, London Life Association and RSA — to the companies whose policy records, deposited with the LMA, have been drawn upon in this compilation, and who retain the copyright in that material.
George’s full dataset, without the additional editorial input in this online version, can be bought in a two-volume printed edition. At the request of the trustees of the estate of the late George Rigal, all profits from the sale of this book go to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain.
© The Estate of the late George Rigal. No part of this material may be reproduced without the consent in writing of the Trustees. Online edition © Petra Laidlaw and Louise Messik.
Searching This Database
This database can be searched via the All-UK Database or the JewishGen Unified Search.
These records are provided in partnership with JCR-UK, a joint project of JewishGen and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. For more information, visit the JCR-UK website.