London Assurance was an English insurance company founded in 1720, in the midst of the South Sea Bubble speculation.

Amongst the embryo schemes were ones by Stephen Ram and James Colebrook and these provided “the seed” for London Assurance.

Stephen Ram was a member of the Court of the Goldsmiths Company, a treasurer of Corr’s lottery and had enjoyed mixed success with other speculative ventures.

The London Assurance flotation came in January 1720 and was spectacularly successful, its share price rising even faster than that of the South Sea Company.

This forbade the formation of joint stock companies unless enabled by royal charter but it also specifically allowed the incorporation of London Assurance and the Royal Exchange; it also granted the two companies a corporate monopoly of marine insurance (the individual underwriters that were eventually to coalesce into Lloyd’s of London continued to trade and still dominated the market).

Despite these problems, the company immediately sought a separate charter for fire assurance; this proved more difficult and was not granted until April 1721.