Cattle clubs, insurance and plague in the mid-nineteenth century

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 53, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 192-211

  Matthews, Stephen ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

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BOS TAURUS;

EID: 27744438477     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (86)

1. C. Walford, Insurance Cyclopaedia (5 vols, 1871-8);
2. for insurance companies, Insurance Cyclopaedia ( I, p. 468-73;
3. for cattle clubs, Insurance Cyclopaedia ( II, p. 144;
4. for Farmers' and Graziers', Insurance Cyclopaedia ( III, p. 171.
5. W. A. Dinsdale, A History of Accident Insurance (1954);
6. Rex C. Russell, Cottagers and Cows, 1800-1892. The cow clubs in Lincolnshire (1987).
7. H. A. L. Cockerell and Edwin Green, The British Insurance Business. A guide to its history and records (sec. edn, 1994), ch. 4;
8. G. Clayton, British Insurance (1971);
9. David R. Stead, 'Risk and Risk Management in English Agriculture, c. 1750-1850', EcHR 57 (2004), pp. 334-61.
10. The Veterarian 40 (1867), pp. 558-9.
11. Report from the select committee on the Sheep etc. Contagious Diseases Prevention Bill; BPP, 1857 (Sess. 2), (129) IX, (649), Q 681;
12. see also The Times, 18 Nov. 1865, p. 9 col. a.
13. Somerset Record Office (hereafter SRO), DD/X/HEA/3.
14. Warwickshire RO, CR 609/25.
15. Cockerell and Green, Insurance Business, p. 84.
16. BPP, 1864 (431), VII, (235), pp. 2-4.
17. There are fifteen limited or mutual companies listed in the National Archives catalogue under the BT 31, dated between 1862 and 1869.
18. BPP, 1857 (Sess. 2) (129), IX, (649), Q. 681.
19. Ibid., QQ. 680-7.
20. Advertisement in The Darlington and Stockton Times, 2 Oct. 1847,
21. cited in The Northern Echo, 2 Oct. 1997, p. 10.
22. The letter is in the archives of the Royal Society, LUB F26, with a subsequent letter LUB F27.
23. The actions can be traced from a summary in Walford, Insurance Cyclopedia, I, pp. 44-5; from TNA, PRO, JN1/31-33, from slightly inaccurate reports in The Times, principally 11 July and 7 Nov. 1864, and given more fully in Law Journal Reports, the most illuminating being, for Spackman, Lord Chancellor Westbury's ruling on 11 Feb. 1865, 34 (i), Chancery and Bankruptcy, 1865, pp. 321-31; for Dixon, 38, Chancery and Bankruptcy, 1869, pp. 567-8 and the final decision by Lord Justice Giffard on 3 Nov. 1869, 39, Chancery and Bankrutcy, 1870, pp. 134-6. It is interesting to note that in Dixon's case the Scottish manager had paid the deposit (the only payment made) on Dixon's shares on his behalf (Dixon paid nothing). We may also note that Gamgee relied upon evidence from a later Scottish Manager (McMinn) when appearing before the Parliamentary Select Committee.
24. Insurance Cyclopedia, Ibid., 35, Chancery and Bankrupcy, 1866, p. 296.
25. The Veterinarian, 40 (1867), pp. 558-9.
26. Chester Chronicle, 3 Feb. 1866, printing an open letter from Edward Evans to the Marquis of Westminster.
27. Clayton, British Insurance, p. 117.
28. Robin Pearson, 'Towards an historical model of services innovation: the case of the insurance industry, 1700-1914', EcHR 50 (1997), pp. 235-56, at p. 240.
29. id., 'Taking risks and containing competition: diversification and oligopoly in the fire insurance markets of the north of England during the early nineteenth century', EcHR 46 (1993), pp. 39-64, at pp. 45, 59-60.
30. A. Woods, A manufactured plague. The history of foot and mouth in Britain (2004), pp. 1-3.
31. Walford, Cyclopaedia, I, p. 473.
32. J. R. Fisher, 'The economic effects of cattle disease in Britain and its containment, 1850-1900', Agricultural Hist. 54 (1980), p. 283.
33. The background is best set out in Frank Miller Turner, 'Rainfall, plagues and the Prince of Wales' in id., Contesting Cultural Authority (1993), pp. 151-70.
34. For a Cheshire context, S. Matthews, 'Explanations for the outbreak of the cattle plague in Cheshire, 1865-6: fear the wrath of the Lord', Northern Hist. (forthcoming).
35. Walford, Cyclopaedia, I, p. 469;
36. Stead, 'Risk Management', p. 345.
37. TNA, PRO, FS/15/254.
38. BPP, 1857 (Sess. 2) (129), IX, (649), Q. 686; SRO, DD/X/HEA/3.
39. The Times, 31 Jan. 1866.
40. SRO, DD/SF/4556; a letter from John Sanford to his father, dated 3 Feb. 1865.
41. Russell, Cottagers, p. 48.
42. Cottagers Ibid., p 44.
43. Stead, 'Risk management', p. 345.
44. G. Ormerod, History of Cheshire, (sec. edn, 3 vols, 1882), II, pp. 275, 303-5,
45. G. Ormerod, History of Cheshire, (sec. edn, III, p. 898;
46. Michael Stewart (ed.), Who's Who of British Members of Parliament (2 vols, 1976), I, p. 379.
47. Russell, Cottagers, p. 32.
48. Chester Record Office (hereafter CRO), DCH/CC/20, rule XV.
49. Cockerell and Green, Insurance Business, p. 84.
50. Stockport Advertiser, 26 Jan. 1866.
51. Chester Chronicle, 25 Aug. 1866.
52. Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, BPP, 1866, (406), XXXIX (401), p. 77.
53. Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, BPP, 1868-9, LVI, (399), p. 153.
54. Chester Chronicle, 23 Dec. 1865.
55. D. Sylvester and G. Nulty, The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (1958), pp. 34-8.
56. S. Matthews, 'Our Suffering county', Trans. of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Soc. 96 (2000), pp. 106-8.
57. C. Stella Davies, The Agricultural History of Cheshire, 1750-1850 (Chetham Society, third ser., 10, 1960), p. 104.
58. For discussions of compensation, see S. Matthews, 'Who's to Pay? Cheshire attitudes towards paying for the Cattle plague of 1865-66', Trans. of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 152 (2003), pp. 79-100.
59. Chester Chronicle, 23 Dec. 1865.
60. Chester Chronicle, 1865. Ibid.
61. For evidence of disagreement see, S. Matthews, 'The Cattle Plague in Cheshire, 1865-6', Northern Hist. 38 (2001), pp. 115-7
62. (though the inference drawn may have been too harsh) but for one landlord who was pilloried in the local press for being unreasonable, see id., 'Who's to pay?', p. 97.
63. Stead, 'Risk management', p. 334.
64. Peckforton estate accounts, CRO, DTW 2477/A/10/8-11.
65. CRO, DTW/2477/A/10/8-10.
66. Chester Chronicle, 23 Dec. 1865.
67. R. Speake (ed.), Bartholmey, the story of an estate village (1995), pp. 150-1.
68. Matthews, 'Our Suffering County', pp. 101; for Tabley, CRO, DLT 2173/137/7.
69. Matthews, 'Our Suffering County', pp. 19-120.
70. For Tollemache, CRO, DTW 2477/A/10/9-12; for Westminster, Stockport Advertiser, 16 Mar. 1866.
71. CRO, DCH/W/1.
72. 29 Vict. c. 34.
73. BPP, 1860, (406), XXXIX, (401), p. 16.
74. In the 1864 Committee report we read that 'the disease known by the names of Aphtha, Aphthous fever, murrain and feet and mouth disease, be omitted from the schedule to the Cattle Diseases Prevention Bill'. BPP, 1864, (431), VII, (235), p. ix.
75. Report of the Veterinary Department for 1871, BPP, 1872 (C. 619) XVIII, (619), p. 10.
76. The Cheshire gentry seem to have been anxious to promote or preserve their cattle associations and clubs and made contributions when needed. As an example, when the Peckforton club was founded, Tollemache promised £10 'to the funds of the society for every 2s. 6d. per head, paid by members on the stock insured'. CRO, DCH/CC/21; undated but probably contemporary with the Cholmondeley society.
77. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Animal Health, A Centenary, 1865-1965 (1965), p. 160;
78. Abigail Woods, A manufactured plague, p. 19. It is ironic that in 1893, when government accepted full financial responsibility, Cheshire was still paying off the thirty-year loan raised in 1866, when the government had refused direct aid.
79. Stockport Advertiser, 13 Oct. 1865. See evidence given by Gamgee to the Select Committee of 1864, BPP, 1864, (431), VII, (235), QQ. 201-22.
80. Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, BPP, 1866, (406), XXXIX, (406), p. 90.
81. Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, Ibid., p. 16; 29 Vict., c. 34.
82. The National Archives catalogue records three cow clubs registered after 1866: Brompton (TNA, PRO, FS 15/753), Hunmanby (FS 15/1590), Wem (FS 15/1938) and one cattle association, at Soham, Cambridgeshire (FS 15/1842).
83. The cattle plague book of John Sutton of Moston 1866, CRO, SF/MOSS/1, cutting from the Chester Chronicle, 3 Sept. 1955.
84. BPP, 1872 (C. 619), XVIII, (629), p. 10. The passage reads, 'Up to the passing of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869, up to the end of 1871, we have received information of 92,162 outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, of which 1,344,625 animals were attacked. Of these only 1.136 per cent died, 0.327 per cent were killed, and 98.537 per cent recovered'.
85. Cockerell and Green, Insurance Business, p. 84.
86. Woods, A manufactured plague, pp. 14-15.