Uncatalogued: General Maritime Assurance Company

The records contain papers of cases tried in the Exchequer Court of Common Pleas concerning vessels insured with the company, 1839 to 1851. They include extracts from log books, survey reports and correspondence.

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Administrative / biographical background
The General Maritime Assurance Company appears to have been established in London in 1839 with an authorized capital of one million pounds. At a time when there was a great deal of activity in the promotion of specialist marine insurance companies, of the authorized ten thousand shares, only 7,500 were allotted; by 1848 only five thousand were still registered. The affairs of the company did not flourish, and the company seems to have ceased trading in 1848. The directors of the company, who also took charge of its liquidation, were defendants in Hallet v. Dowdall, 1852, a case concerning the liability of shareholders in insurance claims.