Catalogue description Records of the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd

Sea Insurance Co. Ltd., 1876 - :

368 SEA/1. Directors' Minute Books,

5 vols., 1875 - 1922

368 SEA/2 Casualty Books,

1 vol., 1876 - 1877

368 SEA/3. Miscellaneous papers,

12 docs., 1890 - [1932]

Forerunners of the Sea Insurance Co.

Ltd., 1813 - 1875 :

368 SEA/4. Miscellaneous records,

2 vols., 1854 - 1866

Sea Insurance Co Ltd

The records listed below were deposited in this library in July 1971 by B. Thornton, Esq., of the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd., Derby House, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool 2.

Acc. 2340

A MS history of the Sea Insurance Co. and its forerunners was written in 1896 by Edward Stewart Jones (available in the Rare Books sequence, see Hq 368.2 SEA), a son of the founder of the firm. According to this MS "the business of the" Sea Insurance Co. is a direct and unbroken continuation of an Insurance business commenced in Feby. of the year 1813 by the late Mr. William Jones".

The firm of insurance brokers Willm. Jones & Co. first appears in Gore's Directory of Liverpool 1814. According to the Stewart Jones MS partners in the firm included not only William Jones but also "... the members of Cropper Benson & Co. ... the most important merchants and shipowners in England - especially with the United States ...". These subsequently retired from the partnership and William Jones took into partnership at some later date an Adam Hodson. The firm is first listed as Jones & Hodson in Gore's Directory, 1834. This partnership was dissolved in 1842, according to the MS history, and William Jones later took into partnership a "Mr. Younghusband who subsequently changed his name to Palmer". The firm Jones, Younghusband & Co. first appears in Gore's Directory, 1847, and Jones, Palmer & Co., in the Directory for 1853.

William Jones' son, William Henry entered the firm in 1850. According to The Daily Post, 24 Jul. 1884 (see Liverpool Obituary Notices Feb. - Dec. 1884, Vol 4, pp. 44-45) William Henry Jones, on the retirement of Mr. Palmer took into partnership Palmer's nephew John Samuel Macknight"... and the new firm was styled Messrs. Jones, Macknight & Co. ...". This is not substantiated, however, by Gore's Directories in which the firm continues to be listed as Jones, Palmer & Co. until 1868 when it first appears as W.H. & S. Jones & Co., Mr. Edward Stewart Jones, according to the Daily Post op. cit. having "... joined his brother in the active management of the shipping property and the underwriting business ... their list of underwriters containing the names of many of the leading merchants and shipowners of the port.

The name W.H. & S. Jones & Co. remained unchanged until 31 Dec. 1875 when the company ceased to do business as a private firm. On 1 Jan. 1876 it became a public company for underwriting and marine insurance, known as the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd., under the chairmanship of William Henry Jones. Minutes of the company promoters meetings for 28 and 29 Dec. 1875 are given in the first Directors' Minute Book, 1875-1892 (see 368 SEA/1/1, pp. 1 - 8 below). These minutes include a transcript of the Memorandum of Agreement and Articles of Association and details relating to registration under the Company's Acts 1862 - 1867.

Gore's Directory of Liverpool, 1814, lists William Jones & Co., insurance brokers, as having their counting house at 22 Exchange Buildings, Liverpool. Today (November 1971) the head offices of the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd. are in Derby House, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool 2. Some of the changes and developments in the "manner and methods" of underwriting and marine insurance in the period 1813 - 1896 are described by E. Stewart Jones in his MS history op. cit.

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