Thomas Bignold (1761–1835) was an English businessman. He was the founder of

Norwich Union Norwich Union was the name of insurance company Aviva's British arm before June 2009. It was originally established in 1797. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. On 29 April 2008, Aviva ...

, now known as Aviva plc, one of the United Kingdom's largest

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

businesses.

Career

Born in

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. It is recorded as early ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Thomas Bignold worked as an exciseman before moving to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

in the early 1780s.Thomas Bignold at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> He became a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

and spirit merchant in 1785. In 1792, he was appointed

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

of the Norwich General Assurance Company. He left Norwich General Assurance in 1797 to found the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Society with support from local shopkeepers. He appointed 500 local agents who helped him to expand the geographic coverage of the business; growth was also driven by his practice of offering profit sharing to fire insurance

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

holders. He went on to found the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society in 1808. After 1815, the post-war recession started to bite and claims against the Society increased and he initially resisted many of those claims — some legitimately but others not. Eventually, his sons collaborated with the other directors to force him to retire. In retirement, ''"Bignold's situation had deteriorated and his eccentricity may have crossed the border with insanity. He had been made bankrupt and incarcerated in a debtor’s prison. He had taken an interest in the shoe industry, patenting the invention of revolving heels for ladies' shoes."''"The Incredible Story of the Man who founded Norwich Union"
Greatbritishlife.co.uk. Accessed 26 December 2022. He was a

churchwarden A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...

and

freeman Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to: * a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm * Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies * Free ...

grocer. He died in 1835.

Family

By 1785 he had married Sarah Long and together they went on to have three sons and three daughters. His youngest son, Samuel, was his successor and later a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

References

1761 births 1835 deaths English businesspeople Aviva people British businesspeople in insurance People from Westerham {{UK-business-bio-stub