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 a ...

, now known as

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 19 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

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 protect ...

businesses.

Career

Born in

Westerham Westerham is a town and civil parishes in England, 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. I ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Thomas Bignold worked as an exciseman before moving to

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

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

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

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

secretary A secretary, administrative assistant, executive assistant, personal secretary, or other similar titles is an individual whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, program evalu ...

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 Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

coverage of the business; growth was also driven by his practice of offering

profit sharing Profit sharing refers to various incentive plans introduced by businesses which provide direct or indirect payments to employees, often depending on the company's profitability, employees' regular salaries, and bonuses. In publicly traded compa ...

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 or ...

holders. He went on to found the Norwich Union Life Insurance Society in 1808. After 1815, the

post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

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, Lutheran Churches or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' mem ...

and

freeman Freeman, free men, Freeman's or Freemans may refer to: Places United States * Freeman, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Freeman, South Dako ...

grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

. 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 Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

, was his successor and later a Member of Parliament.

References

1761 births 1835 deaths English businesspeople Aviva people British businesspeople in insurance People from Westerham {{UK-business-bio-1760s-stub