Receipts for Dividends and Deposits A, 1835 April 1-1855 October 31

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.