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About Captain Samuel Blodgett, Jr.
A Patriot of the American Revolution for NEW HAMPSHIRE with the rank of CAPTAIN. DAR Ancestor # A011384
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance_Company_of_North_America
Insurance Company of North America (INA) is the oldest stock insurance company in the United States,[1] founded in Philadelphia in 1792. It was one the largest American insurance companies of the 19th and 20th centuries before co-founding CIGNA in 1982. Since 1999 it has been a subsidiary of global insurer ACE Limited.
In 1792, Boston merchant Samuel Blodget moved to Philadelphia. He did so in part to seek a commission from President George Washington as superintendent of construction for the new federal city then being built along the Potomac River (an amateur architect, Blodget would later design the First Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia[2]), but also to collaborate on a business venture with former U.S. Postmaster General Ebenezer Hazard, who owned a counting house in the city.[3]
Hazard had previously invested in an idea of Blodget's called the Boston Tontine, a sort of early annuity fund that also acted as a lottery for the last surviving investor. It failed, but Blodget and Hazard decided to try again in Philadelphia, then the largest city in North America. They called their new attempt the Universal Tontine Association and this time gave it a 21-year lifespan, after which the association would disband and the surviving investors would split what remained of the fund.[4]
The Universal Tontine Association also failed to generate the hoped-for interest. In November 1792, its investors met at the Pennsylvania State House (today Independence Hall) to decide what to do with their fund. On November 12, they adopted a proposal to form a general insurance company, to be called the Insurance Company of North America. On November 19, the investors adopted articles of association, giving the company the ability to write fire, life, or marine insurance, though initially the investors would focus solely on marine.[5]
The company started with $600,000 capital, selling shares at $10 each. Investors subscribed to the first 40,000 shares in eleven days, and on December 10, they met again at the State House to elect directors. The directors held their first board meeting the next day, at Philadelphia's City Tavern. There, they elected merchant and underwriter John Maxwell Nesbitt as president and Hazard as secretary. On December 15, the company opened for business at 119 (now 223) South Front Street. The first policy was issued to Nesbitt's mercantile firm, Conyngham, Nesbitt & Co., for the ship America on its voyage from Philadelphia to Londonderry.[6]
On December 18, the company petitioned the Pennsylvania legislature for a charter of incorporation. Due to opposition from private underwriters and others, the legislature took over a year to approve the petition; Governor Thomas Mifflin signed the charter incorporating INA on April 14, 1794.
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Captain Samuel Blodgett, Jr.'s Timeline
| 1757 |
August 28, 1757
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Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States
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| 1797 |
1797
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Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
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| 1814 |
1814
Age 56
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Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
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