Subseries 11: Receipt Books, 1795-1972

This subseries consists mostly of receipts of payments to policyholders, the two main types being payments for losses and payments of deposits and dividends upon the expiration of seven-year policies. (“Receipts for Despotism, 1812-1818,” is the exception, recording the Society’s receipt of deposit upon issuance of policy. Presumably the actual issuance of a policy was receipt enough, thus the short-livedness of this type of record.) Initially, receipts for all transactions were recorded in a single volume. Deposits and Dividends were recorded by date in a distinct set of volumes beginning in 1821; losses, along with some minor payment types, in 1835. A more formal record of “Receipts for Dividends and Deposits” (OS Vol. 87-88) was initiated in 1835; these were organized by policy number and limited to deposits and dividends paid at the expiration of the full seven-year term. Policies that were suspended or cancelled prior to the expiration of the term continued to be logged by date. After the Seven-year policy was discontinued, the formal records of receipts for dividends and deposits were discontinued while the less formal version was continued as a record of receipts for partial returns of deposits on perpetual policies, which occurred when coverage was reduced.