Where property Insurance came from...

Someone asked me where homeowner insurance "came from" yesterday. Here is the long answer:


Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured more than 13,000 houses. The devastatingeffects of the fire converted the development of insurance "from a matter of convenience into one of urgency, a change of opinion reflected in Sir Christopher Wren's inclusion of a site for 'the Insurance Office' in his new plan for London in 1667".[8] A number of attempted fire insurance schemes came to nothing, but in 1681, economist Nicholas Barbon and eleven associates established the first fire insurance company, the "Insurance Office for Houses", at the back of the Royal Exchange to insure brick and frame homes. Initially, 5,000 homes were insured by his Insurance Office.[9]



In the wake of this first successful venture, many similar companies were founded in the following decades. Initially, each company employed its own fire department to prevent and minimise the damage from conflagrations on properties insured by them. They also began to issue 'Fire insurance marks' to their customers. These would be displayed prominently above the main door of the property and allowed the insurance company to positively identify properties that had taken out insurance with them. One such notable company was the Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society, founded in 1696 at Tom's Coffee House in St. Martin's Lane in London.[10] It was structured as a mutual society, and for 135 years it operated its own fire brigade and played an important part in shaping fire fighting and prevention.[10] The Sun Fire Office is the earliest still existing property insurance company, dating from 1710.[10]

This system was soon exposed as terribly flawed, as rival brigades often ignored burning buildings once they discovered that it had no insurance policy with their company. Eventually, a solution was agreed upon in which all the insurance companies would supply money and equipment to a municipal authority charged with stationing fire prevention assets and firefighters equally around the city to respond to all fires. This did not solve the problem entirely, as the brigades still tended to favour saving insured buildings to those without any insurance at all.[11]

In Colonial America, the first insurance company that underwrote fire insurance and was formed in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), South Carolina in 1732. Benjamin Franklin helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly Property insurance to spread the risk of loss from fire, in the form of perpetual insurance. In 1752, he founded the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin's company made contributions toward fire prevention. Not only did his company warn against certain fire hazards, it refused to insure certain buildings where the risk of fire was too great, such as all wooden houses.

Most of these companies that were around in the early days of our county that still exist are marketed through the independent agency system. they represent some of the oldest corporations in existence, and some of the longest corporations to continually exist in our nation. Now that's something!

Some of them are:

Hanover Fire & Casualty Insurance , founded in 1847
Maloy Risk Services, 1872
Insurance Company of North America ((INA), 1792
Baltimore Equitable, 1787
Mutual Insurance, 1794
Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co, 1800
The Hartford, 1810
Vermont Mutual, 1828
Frederick Mutual, 1843
Southern Mutual, 1847



These companies are still around today protecting people's houses.

Bauknight Insurance operates two Counties in Florida, Bauknight Insurance, 13041 US Hwy 19, Hudson, FL 34667 (727) 863-5641 and Bauknight Insurance of Hernando 10488 Spring Hill Drive, Spring Hill, Fl 34607 (352-686-0612

www.bauknightinsurance.com