3 medical reports for application to the Scottish (Widows

3 printed questionnaire forms or reports drawn up by 'Directors of the Scottish (Widows' Fund) Life Assurance Society' with answers written in manuscript. Two of the forms are entitled 'Report by a friend of the party' and have 11 questions, and one is entitled 'Medical report' and has 18 questions. The forms relate to:

• Thomas James, of Hurcott, near Kidderminster, Worcestershire, who was a paper manufacturer. The form (Report by a friend of the party) has been signed and completed by Mr. Trope, 10 Aldgate, on 11 December 1837.
• Rev. William Martin Thompson, Minister of the Scotch Church, Woolwich. The form (Report by a friend of the party) has been signed and completed by Major Anderson, Royal Artillery, Woolwich, on 6 July 1842.
• Peter M'Laren, who was a warehouseman with Messrs Reid Robertson and Co. Glasgow, and 'about two years ago with employment of Messrs Harvie and Co., Dublin. The form (Medical report) has been signed and completed by Dr. Kirby, Dublin, on 7 February 1839.

The Scottish Widows Fund and Equitable Assurance Society, or Scottish Widows, was established in 1815 in Edinburgh. The idea for the setting up of a fund for the financial protection of the relatives of deceased clergyman and schoolmasters had been put forward by a group of prominent Scotsmen in March 1812. The fund would protect 'widows, sisters and other females' from poverty, and would be achieved by insuring capital sums on lives. The plan was extend the benefits of the fund to all parts of Britain. By September 1821, funds had reached £20,000, and in 1845 they stood at £1,700,000. In our own modern times Scottish Widows became part of Lloyds TSB Group.

Open to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

Acquired from Northamptonshire Record Office, January 2013. Accession no: E2013.06.

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie14 March 2013

Also held within Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library, are several other examples of such reports. These items acquired in earlier years have been gathered together as Coll-484. They relate to the individuals, James Martin, Thomas Thomson, Andrew Duncan, Henry Dundas, Harriet Duchess of Roxburgh, Robert Alexander Osborne Dalyell, Rev. Alexander Graham, William Maxwell Gunn, and J. H. Rayner, and span the years 1830-1839.