Invested in identity: the Freemasons’ Tontine of 1775 Diane Clements MRes in Historical Research University of London September 2018 Institute of Historical Research School of Advanced Study 1 Table of Contents Page Illustrations……………………………………………………………………..…….3 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….5 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………...............6 Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………6 Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………….. ………………...7 Chapter 2: ‘To peruse and settle’: the development of tontine terms……………….23 Chapter 3: ‘At liberty to subscribe’: tontine investors………………...…………….35 Chapter 4: ‘For children and decent incomes’: investing for the long term………...50 Chapter 5: ‘Proof of his being living’: identity……………………………………...74 Chapter 6: The final years and conclusion……………………………….…............99 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….112 Appendix 1: Tontines to finance buildings and infrastructure 1750-1820…...........129 Appendix 2: Freemasons’ Tontine Dividend Record……………………………...132 2 Illustrations Tables Page 1: Geographical analysis of subscribers and nominees……………………………...42 2: Gender analysis of subscribers…………………………………………………...43 3: Analysis of the size of individual holdings……………………………...………..46 4: Analysis of subscriber/nominee relationship…………………………………..…47 5: Age analysis of nominees………………………………………………………...48 6: Analysis of the social status of the subscribers to the Freemasons’ Tontine……..51 7: Analysis of subscribers and their nominees in the Freemasons’ Tontine………...51 8: Distribution of subscribers’ wills across status groups………………………..….52 9: Assets mentioned in the wills of subscribers to the Freemasons’ Tontine……….56 10: Occasions of disposal of shares in the Freemasons’ Tontine…………………...72 11: Use of newspaper advertisements……………………………………………….92 Charts 1: Effective interest rate for the Freemasons’ Tontine 1776-1845………………….58 2: Freemasons’ Tontine Profile showing nominee deaths, bequests by shareholders and other assignments………………………………………………....82 Images 1: Front page of the proposals document for the Freemasons’ Tontine……………...3 2: First page of a manuscript list of subscribers to the Freemasons’ Tontine………38 3: Freemasons’ Tontine Register entry for Share No. 33, subscribed by Rowland Berkeley and transferred to Elizabeth Bathurst…………………………..45 4: Freemasons’ Tontine Register entry for Share No. 25, subscribed by Henry Dagge ……………………………………………………………………….55 3 5: Freemasons’ Tontine Register entry for Share No. 42 showing original subscriber William Settree and subsequent bequest and disposal ……………………………...62 6: Share certificate for the Freemasons’ Tontine……………………………………77 7: Two-part pre-printed letter requesting certification of identity…………………..87 8: Freemasons’ Tontine Register entry for Share No. 37, subscribed by John Derwas noting issues relating to the legatee John Derwas Haines………………….94 Front cover Clockwise from top left: Henry Charles Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, oil painting by Francis Cotes; the first Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, c.1800, watercolour by John Nixon; share certificate for the Freemasons’ Tontine (FMH TON/8/17); Robert Edward, 9th Lord Petre, oil painting by Joseph Sidney Willis Hodges; Sir Peter Parker, engraving by T. Blood; Thomas Sandby, engraving of a portrait by Sir William Beechey ; Duke of Cumberland, oil painting by Matthew William Peters; proposal document for the Freemasons’ Tontine, 1775 (FMH PPAP 5); Thomas Dunckerley, engraving by J. Jones of a portrait by Thomas Beach All the images are copyright, and reproduced with the permission of, the Library and Museum of Freemasonry. 4 Abstract A tontine is an annuity contingent on the survival of a nominated life. The relationship between the issuer of, and investors and nominees in, a tontine allows for consideration of investment decisions made by a defined group, including an evaluation of attitudes to risk, alongside an enquiry into the monitoring of identities, and communications, within that group. Tontines were used by the British government and were adopted in the later eighteenth century by non-state entities to finance buildings and infrastructure. English freemasons used a tontine in 1775 to finance the building of the first Freemasons’ Hall in London. The survival of records for this tontine until its maturity in 1862 has facilitated this innovative examination of investors and their decisions over its life. Tontine investors were drawn from the property-owning, commercial and professional classes, largely male but with a significant part played by widows and spinsters. Investment in a tontine could be a rational choice rather than a gamble and there was a consistent pattern of investment to benefit both the individual investor and extended family. Contemporary concern about fraud required the issuer to monitor the identities of investors who, in turn, had to find ways of asserting their legal personality to justify claims. Identification and communication drew on investors’ self-interest, newspaper advertising and amenable third-party witnesses. This dissertation provides the first comprehensive study of the motivations for, and dynamics of, a non-state tontine from creation to conclusion and from the multiple perspectives of its initiator, investors and beneficiaries. Keywords: tontine; investment; identity; family; gambling 5 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my former colleagues, the staff at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, for their support and their patient assistance in making available so much of the rich archive of the United Grand Lodge of England and its predecessors to enable me to complete this project. Thanks are also due to staff at the Local Studies Library and Archive at the London Borough of Richmond, the London Metropolitan Archives, the libraries at Senate House and the Institute of Historical Research and the London Library. Diane Clements September 2018 Abbreviations LMF The Library and Museum of Freemasonry LMA London Metropolitan Archives Richmond London Borough of Richmond Local Studies Library and Archive TNA The National Archives, Kew 6 Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction In early 1775 the Grand Lodge of English freemasons acquired a site in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, on which to build the society’s first headquarters building. At a meeting at the Thatched House Tavern in St James’ Street, called by the Grand Master, Robert Edward, 9th Lord Petre, it was agreed to raise £5,000 by subscription to a tontine to pay for the building.1 Within a few months one hundred shares in the Freemasons’ Tontine at a cost of £50 each had been sold to investors.2 This first purpose-built masonic hall was one contribution to urban landscapes across Britain which were being transformed with the provision of hotels, theatres and assembly rooms to meet the needs of a population with time and money to spend on leisure. The use of tontines to finance these buildings has been referenced in work on this eighteenth-century urban renaissance but the extent of their use has not been fully appreciated.3 In studying one tontine scheme from its creation in 1775 until its expiration in 1862, this dissertation provides a case study into the investment decisions made by a defined group, including an evaluation of their attitude to risk, alongside an enquiry into the means of monitoring the identities of, and communicating with, the individuals within that group by a non-state organisation. A tontine is a form of life annuity with, in the terminology of the eighteenth century, ‘the benefit of survivorship’. The tontine concept was named after a Neapolitan 1 LMF, FMH TON/8/1 dated 16 February 1775. 2 Library and Museum of Freemasonry, The hall in the garden: Freemasons’ Hall and its place in London (Hersham, 2006), pp. 12-19. 3 Peter Borsay, The English urban renaissance: culture, and society in the provincial town 1660 - 1770 (Oxford, 2009); C. W. Chalklin, ‘Capital expenditure on building for cultural purposes in provincial England 1730–1830’, Business History, Vol. 22 (1980), pp. 51-70; Mark Girouard, The English town (New Haven and London, 1990), p. 137. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction banker, Lorenzo Tonti, who first proposed his financing scheme in 1652.4 There were four roles within a tontine. The issuer was the borrower and initiator of the tontine. The subscriber provided the initial capital subscription and when doing so had to nominate a life. The shareholder or proprietor was the person entitled to receive the annual interest on the tontine share, a payment often referred to as the dividend. The nominee was the person on whose life the contract was contingent. The total annual dividend paid by the issuer remained unchanged but as nominees died, shareholders whose nominees were still living received an increased dividend as the total was divided between fewer people. Eventually the shareholder whose nominee was the one remaining survivor received the whole dividend. The issuer did not have to repay the capital sum but had a commitment to pay the dividend for as long as there were any survivors. In the case of the Freemasons’ Tontine, where the amount raised was £5,000 at a nominal interest rate or dividend of five per cent. per annum, this annual dividend was £250. In some cases where the subscriber paid for the share, nominated his or her own life and continued to receive the dividend until death, three roles were vested in the same person. The roles could also be held by different people. A subscriber who nominated an individual