A History of Methodist Insurance in Britain

The Methodist Insurance Company celebrates the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foundation in 2022. This book tells the story of how Methodists acted, from the earliest days, to protect their chapels and other buildings from fire and other risks. After several failed attempts in the first half of the nineteenth century, the various strands of British Methodism, including the Primitive Methodists (1866) and the Wesleyans (1872), established property insurance concerns, financed by leading lay members and managed jointly by businesspeople and clergy. These protected an expanding nationwide network of chapels and schools, and provided crucial underpinning for the movement’s mission of spreading the gospel and delivering educational, welfare and social services. The narrative encompasses an era of wrenching social change, two World Wars, and a technological revolution, but the purpose, ethos and daily operation of today’s Methodist Insurance Company would look familiar to the pioneers of one and fifty years ago.