A PLAN, DIFFERENT TO ANY BEFORE THAT TIME DISCOVERED, FOR ASSURANCE ON LIVES FROM TEN TO EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE, UPON A TWOFOLD BENEFICIAL PRINCIPLE, MAKING A CERTAIN PROVISION AS WELL FOR SUBSCRIBERS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES UPON THE DEATH OF THE PERSON ON WHOSE LIFE ASSURANCE SHOULD BE MADE WITHIN THE TERM ASSURED FOR, AS ALSO BY MEANS OF A RESERVED CAPITAL FOR THE SURVIVING SUBSCRIBERS WHOSE NOMINEES SHOULD BE LIVING AT THE EXPIRATION OF SUCH TERM, AND THAT THE SAID SCHEME OR INSTITUTION WAS ADAPTED TO THE DIFFERENT RANKS, PROFESSIONS, AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANKIND, WHEREIN SUB- SCRIBERS MIGHT INSURE ON THE LIVES OF THEMSELVES OR OF OTHERS, FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT OR THAT OF THEIR ASSIGNEES, AND WOULD, IF CARRIED INTO EXECUTION, PROVE OF GREAT ADVANTAGE TO HIS MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS, ANDLIKEWISE CONTRIBUTE TO THE INCREASE OF THE PUBLIC REVENUES BY A VERY CONSIDERABLE CONSUMPTION OF STAMPS,
Year: 1778

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN KNOX,
of Richmond, in the County of Surry, Gentleman, sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS the said John Knox did, by his Petition, humbly represent
'unto His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that with
'great assiduity, art, and pains, and at a considerable expence, he had invented
"A PLAN, DIFFERENT TO ANY BEFORE THAT TIME DISCOVERED, FOR ASSURANCE ON
LIVES FROM TEN TO EIGHTY YEARS OF AGE, UPON A TWOFOLD BENEFICIAL PRINCIPLE,
MAKING A CERTAIN PROVISION AS WELL FOR SUBSCRIBERS OR THEIR REPRESENTATIVES
UPON THE DEATH OF THE PERSON ON WHOSE LIFE ASSURANCE SHOULD BE MADE
WITHIN THE TERM ASSURED FOR, AS ALSO BY MEANS OF A RESERVED CAPITAL FOR
THE SURVIVING SUBSCRIBERS WHOSE NOMINEES SHOULD BE LIVING AT THE EXPIRATION
OF SUCH TERM, AND THAT THE SAID SCHEME OR INSTITUTION WAS ADAPTED TO THE
DIFFERENT RANKS, PROFESSIONS, AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANKIND, WHEREIN SUB-
SCRIBERS MIGHT INSURE ON THE LIVES OF THEMSELVES OR OF OTHERS, FOR THEIR OWN
BENEFIT OR THAT OF THEIR ASSIGNEES, AND WOULD, IF CARRIED INTO EXECUTION, PROVE
OF GREAT ADVANTAGE TO HIS MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS, AND LIKEWISE CONTRIBUTE TO THE
INCREASE OF THE PUBLIC REVENUES BY A VERY CONSIDERABLE CONSUMPTION OF STAMPS."
Therefore, and in regard tho said John Knox had, after many laborious
calculations and at a great expence, invented a plan for the purposes before
stated, he most humbly prayed His said Majesty to grant unto him, the said
John Knox, his executors, administrators, and assigns, His Royal Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, for the sole and exclusive
practice and execution of his said new Invention for assurance on lives, accord-
ing to the plan aforesaid, within His Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain,
His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of
fourteen years according to the form of the Statute in sucli case made and
provided. And whereas His said Majesty being willing to give encourage-

page_text: ment to all arts and inventions that might be for the public good, was
graciously pleased to condescend to the said request of the said John Knox,
and of His special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, did, by His
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of July last, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto the said John Knox, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that he, the said John Knox, his executors, administrators,
and assigns, and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their
deputy or deputys, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said John
Knox, his executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend his said Invention within that part of His Majesty's Kingdom of
Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and His Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said John Knox, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their
discretions seem meet; and that he, the said John Knox, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the
whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during
the term of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the
said licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein-before granted or
mentioned to be granted unto the said John Knox, bis executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen
years from the day of the date of the said Letters Patent, next and imme-
diately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to the Statute
in such case made and provided. In which said Letters Patent is contained
a certain proviso as or to the effect following, that is to say, that if the said
John Knox should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his
said Invention and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should cease, determine, and become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of and in compliance with the said
proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, and in order to enable him, the
said John Knox, his executors, administrators, and assigns, to receive and
take the benefit and advantage of his said Invention and of the said Letters

page_text: Patent, he, the said John Knox, doth by this present Instrument in writing
under his hand and seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed in the
manner following, that is to say :-
expence
Five hundred persons become mutual insurers one to the other, and the
is levied by a mode not depending on vague calculation, but upon
absolute certainty; for, by the method here adopted, the money to be raised
annually in each respective class will be previously ascertained by the number
of claimants who have appeared in such classes: for example, if six persons
drop in any one class between Christmas One thousand seven hundred and
seventy-eight and Christmas One thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine,
the call upon every member in that class will be one pound ten shillings,
which, amongst five hundred members, raises one hundred pounds to claimants
in classes that are full, and so in proportion in classes that are filling, exclusive
of twenty-five pounds p' cent. for a reserved capital, as herein-after expressed.
Books are opened for the admission of members at the office No. 76, near
the Adelphi, in the Strand, London, where persons of both sexes in any part of
Great Britain may insure on their own or another's life in any of the following
classes according to their respective ages, viz, in

page_text: Each holder of a policy, or agent, is to pay five shillings on the death of
every nominee in the respective class wherein they are members for every
number contained in such policy, which payments, in any class that is full,
raise one hundred pounds to claimants; and twenty-five pounds for the purpose
of forming an aggregate fund in each respective class to be laid out in Govern-
ment securities upon accumulating interest till December, One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-eight, when the same will be divided equally amongst the
surviving members or persons then holding policies upon producing certificates
of survivorship. But no dividend to be made to persons who do not make good
their claim within twelve months from the dissolution of the class wherein they
are members.
The payments on the death of nominees are to be made annually within
one month after Christmas, the names of the persons entitled having been pre-
viously specified by letters sent to the respective members. But if the same
should not be paid on or before the Twenty-fifth of March following, the
policy to be null and void, and the deficiency to be made good to claimants
out of the reserved capital. Upon the death of a nominee the party legally
intitled to a benefit is to procure a proper certificate or other proof of the
death prior to the claim being allowed.
All claims to be adjusted every year within one month after Christmas, and
the money to be paid on or before the Twenty-fifth of March following on
receiving back the policy.
No act of a nominee, such as changing their habitation, profession, or going
abroad, to deprive the claimant of his or her benefit, suicide and those who
die by the hand of justice excepted. Nevertheless if it shall appear that any
false or fraudulent representation or act hath been used to impose upon the
society, all claims thereon shall cease, and the policy become void.
:
: N.B. Attendance will be given at the office every day from nine to fivo
of the clock, Sundays excepted, and a committee of the directors will sit every.
Thursday from twelve to two o'clock to admit members and to regulate the
business.
In witness whereof, the said John Knox bath hereunto set his hand
and seal, this Twentieth day of November, in the nineteenth year of
the reign of His said Majesty King George the Third, and in the year
of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight..
.
JOHN (L.S.) KNOX.
Signed and sealed by the within-named
John Knox, in the presence of .us,
JN ALLEN.
BD KIRKHAM, Cl., P. O.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1778, the aforesaid John Knox came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and
Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth
year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight.