Annals, Anecdotes and Legends: A Chronicle of Life Assurance

by of the Bank of England John Francis

But bad as this might be for such a man, he brought yet harsher treatment on his head. As, previously to Helen Abercrombie’s death, she had made her will in favour of her sister, the claim of the latter was placed before the various offices in which the life had been insured. While this was pending, Wainwright, thinking that if he could save the directors from paying such large sums, they would gratefully interfere for the alleviation of his misery, wrote a letter giving them certain information, coupled with a request or condition that they should procure a mitigation of punishment. What this revelation was may be judged from the united facts, that it saved the offices from paying the policies, and that when they communicated it to the Secretary of State, an order was immediately sent to place him in irons, and to forward him instantly to the convict ship. If his position were bad before, it was worse now; and he whose luxury a rose leaf would have ruffled, and whose nerves were so delicately attuned that a harsh note would jar them, must have been fearfully situated. He had played his last card, and he had lost. When he wrote from Newgate he had claimed for himself “a soul whose nutriment was love, and its offspring art, music, divine song, and still holier philosophy.” In the convict ship he shrunk from the companionship of the men with whom he was associated, and his pride revolted from being placed in irons without distinction, like them. “They think me a desperado! Me! the companion of poets, philosophers, artists, and musicians, a desperado! You will smile at this—no, I think you will feel for the man, educated and reared as a gentleman, now the mate of vulgar ruffians and country bumpkins.”

It is evident there was no change in him. He was just as much a selfish, coxcombical charlatan as when, fifteen years before, he wrote in one of his art papers of “exchanging our smart, tight-waisted, stiff-collared coat for an easy chintz gown with pink ribbons;” when he touched so lightly but luxuriantly on “our muse or maid-servant, a good-natured Venetian-shaped girl,” and of “our complacent consideration of our rather elegant figure, as seen in a large glass placed opposite our chimney mirror.” Others might be ashamed of self-idolatry; he gloried in it. Such was his description of himself; and who that has read it will ever forget that other description of him as exemplified by Gabriel Varney? “Pale, abject, cowering, all the bravery rent from his garb, all the gay insolence vanished from his brow, can that hollow-eyed, haggard wretch, be the same man whose senses opened on every joy, whose nerves mocked at every peril?”[21]

The career of Wainwright is instructive. From the time that he quitted the simple rule of right, he wandered over the world under influences too fearful to detail, and he died in a hospital at Sydney under circumstances too painful to be recapitulated.

From 1825 to 1835, there was a huge outcry against all the new offices, principally, however, raised by the old companies, who seemed to claim a patent right of preservation. They forgot that competition is the very soul of business, and mourned greatly as every new office made its appearance, although by 1835 only fourteen more were established. The following fraud was held in the light of a providence, and has long been quoted by them, though few are aware of the many remarkable circumstances in connection with the infamous “Independent and West Middlesex:”—

An old man, between sixty and seventy, ignorant, uneducated, and in want; who had been at one time a smuggler, and at another a journeyman shoemaker, thought, in the year 1836, that the best mode of supplying his necessities would be to open an office for the receipt of moneys in exchange for the sale of annuities. The plan was notable, but required assistance, and a coadjutor worthy his friendship was soon found in one William Hole, a tallow-chandler, a smuggler, a footman, and a bankrupt. These friends at once confederated together, and found no great difficulty in their way. The chief capital demanded by such an undertaking on the part of the proprietor, was unbounded impudence; and on that of the public, unbounded credulity. Having joined their purses to produce a prospectus, and having taken an office in what Theodore Hooke called “the respectable neighbourhood” of Baker Street, Portman Square, their next plan was to concoct a directory of gentlemen who, while they attracted public attention and seemed a pledge for the respectability of the company, should yet mislead those who were not familiar with the financial world. This was an easy task, and in due time the most honourable names in London were openly published as managers of the “Independent and West Middlesex Fire and Life Insurance Company.” Trusting to the faith of people in great mercantile firms, there was scarcely a banker, a brewer, or a merchant whose patronymic, with different initials, was not used by these ex-smugglers to forward their views. Drummonds, Perkins, Smith, Price, and Lloyd were all produced as fancy directors, to adorn one of the most impudent prospectuses which was ever composed. They then turned their attention to the working men of the establishment, and Mr. Hole having a brother-in-law named Taylor[22], sufficiently respectable to be a journeyman bell-hanger, sought him out, saying “he was going to make a gentleman of him,” undertaking to pay him 100 guineas yearly, provided he attended the board when it was required, and did not “get drunk or behave disorderly.” Finding some difficulty in procuring a sufficient number, and being applied to by a William Wilson for a menial situation, they at once advanced him to the post of director, paying the liberal sum of five shillings weekly. A boy of sixteen, who went on errands, who signed annuity deeds for thousands, or who swept the floors, was also appointed to a similar post; while the gentleman who undertook the onerous position of auditor, was also porter in general to this respectable establishment. On board days they were told to dress in their “Sunday’s best,” to place brooches in their dirty shirts, and rings on their clumsy fingers; the huge fine of half-a-crown being inflicted, should they appear in the native simplicity of their work-a-day attire; and it is no unremarkable feature of this establishment, that Taylor duly, on board days, left his master the bell-hanger to go to his master the director, to sign the deeds which duped the public. Their next requirement was a banker; and none other was good enough save the Bank of England, which was added to the list of attractions of this commercial bill of the play.

Everything thus prepared, they turned their attention to statistics; and here again there was no great obstacle. In order to procure business, it was necessary to offer tempting terms, so they liberally proposed to serve the public 30 per cent. lower than any other office, although with all the existing competition the greatest difference hitherto had been but from 1 to 1 1/2 per cent.; and in addition to this, these bad men committed the glaring impudence of granting life assurances for much smaller premiums, and selling annuities on much lower terms than any one else; terms so palpably wrong that a man of 30 by paying 1000l. could obtain a life annuity of 80l., and by paying 17l. 10s. of this to insure his life, could receive 6 1/4 per cent. for his money and secure his capital to his successors.[23]

Having thus arranged preliminaries, they opened their office and commenced business. They had the precaution to select respectable agents, and by giving 25 per cent. where other companies only gave 5 per cent., stimulated them to say all they could in their favour. The terms were very attractive; there is always a large ignorant class ready and willing to be duped; and the business went on swimmingly. If a man wanted to insure his life, there was no great difficulty about his health. If another wished to purchase an annuity, they were quite willing to dispense with baptismal certificates in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glasgow; large and handsome offices were opened, and the public induced to play its part in this most serious drama of real life. The poor and less intelligent portion of the community, lured by terms which had never before tempted them, took their spare cash and invested it in the West Middlesex. Rich men were not less dazzled by the golden promises; and one, disposed to sink a large sum in so profitable a concern, desired his solicitor to inquire about its solidity. The solicitor went to the manager, and questioned him as to the directors and the capital. Knowles at once said the directors were not the men whose names they took, nor was the capital so much as a million. But the former, he vowed, were respectable men, and the latter was quite enough for their purpose. As, however, he declined to give the residences of the directors, or to say where the capital was invested, the solicitor also declined to risk the money of his client. The success, however, which they experienced in other cases, justified their daring. One person who had toiled, and worked, and grown prematurely old in the service of Mammon, invested his all in the purchase of an annuity, and in order to secure the capital, insured his life. In two years he was a beggar. A family which with great industry, and by doing without a servant for forty years, had saved enough to retire from business, placed the principal portion with the West Middlesex, in time to be informed that the directors had absconded. A governess who had been left a small property, and bought a deferred annuity with the proceeds, died of a low fever soon after the bubble burst. Half-pay captains, clergymen, servants, tradesmen, all came with their spare cash to get 6 1/4 per cent. and secure their capital.

From remote districts where their prospectuses had been circulated, money came pouring in. Any one who chooses to refer to the current literature of that time, will perceive that these fellows availed themselves of every vehicle to make their claims public. The daily and weekly papers, the monthly and quarterly journals, all bear testimony to their zeal in the shape of shameless advertisements, and the walls of provincial towns absolutely blazed with their attractive terms.