Insuring Against Sickness in Victorian Dore

Benefit or friendly societies were associations formed to save their members from destitution during sickness and ensure a payment to relatives in case of death. We know from the gravestone of John Ward in Dore churchyard that Dore had two by 1840, but whether both left further footprints on the sands of time is unclear. A separate third one, we think, came about much later.

How Dore’s Friendly Society Got its Funds

Friendly societies’ principal sources of income were members’ fees of two kinds, initiation and regular contributions. From the 1840s they were recommended to adopt a system of premiums (monthly contributions) rising with age.

According to its 1864 Rules the Dore and Totley Society charged graduated initiation fees instead: 5s for young men aged 18 increasing in stages to £6 for men of 39, the maximum entry age and as such typical.

Meanwhile the premiums to be paid each lodge night were fixed at 1s 4d for everyone, slightly higher than the usual shilling.
£1 (20s) in 1864 would buy about £135 worth of goods today.

Raising Extra Income

Small additional sums were levied on members. The most significant was probably the monthly twopence charge towards ‘expenses of management’, probably covering room rent and possibly hospitality. It wasn’t unusual among friendly societies to buy an agreed amount of ‘lodge liquor’ as rent in kind.

Incurring Fines

Drunkenness at the Dore meetings incurred fines: a penny for betting, 3d for swearing, indecent remarks, calling political toasts or disobeying the W.P. (Worshipful President?) or vice-president. More serious offences were quarrelling (2s 6d) and assault and fighting (5s). Various misdemeanours when supposedly ill incurred forfeiture of sick pay and also a fine of 10s on the first occasion, £1 on the second and expulsion on a third.

How Dore’s Friendly Society Made Its Gifts

As a condition for benefits the ‘Sick Society’ required members to ‘be well attached to the Queen and Government’. This was ambiguous: convicted criminals could expect ejection and seditious people were more likely to break their bones and become a liability to the society, but similar thinking led to the expulsion of members who became professional soldiers. The ‘sick gift’ (sickness benefit) was 8s per week for the first 24 weeks, then 4s per week for the rest of the illness.

No types of new illness were ineligible except venereal diseases and injuries sustained through drunkenness or fighting; this was more generous than many societies who excluded mental disorders, blindness and age-related disabilities. Conversely the Sick Society provided no specific additional cover for medical attendance, thus lagging behind many others. The claims procedure involved sick visitors, forms and after a fortnight a doctor’s note. Infirm members capable of a limited amount of paid work could be allowed a reduced weekly grant of 2s 6d. The ‘burial money’ (death grant) was £5 after one year’s membership or £10 after two.

A Club for the Ladies

Finally, what about the women? We seize upon two golden nuggets. A small news item from 1889 records the annual feast of the Dore and Totley Ladies’ Sick Club. Meeting at the Hare, members followed the band to the Fleur-de-Lis at Totley where a dinner-dance was held.

In 1909 members of the men’s society made a presentation to Joseph Marshall, 69, surveyor of the highways, their president for 41 years. The reporter commented: Until its dissolution some few years ago, Mr Marshall had acted as secretary of the Ladies Club for Dore and Totley. The fact that the same person was long-term president of the men’s club and secretary of the ladies’ suggests a close link between the two. It is thought the Ladies Club began in the 1870s and ended in the early 1900s.

Society Celebrations

Let’s take a last look at the Dore and Totley Sick and Funeral Society at its 1872 anniversary through the window of the Derbyshire Times. As usual, members foregathered at the Hare and Hounds, formed a procession and led by the Dore and Ecclesall Brass Band marched to Totley, Totley Bents and back to Christ Church. A most impressive sermon was preached by the Rev J.T.F. Aldred, vicar of Dore. After the service the procession reformed and marched to the Clubroom where a splendid dinner was provided by the Host and Hostess Parkin.

How Friendly Societies Came to Dore

He just made it into the Victorian era: John Ward, probably of Totley, a widower who died aged 64 on 11 June 1840. Unlike his wife he was buried at Dore and his inscription seems to speak for grateful friends. He was:

A man of good morals, and one of the founders of Dore Sunday School, to which with the two Benefit Societies he maintained an ardent attachment until his death.

By the summer of 1844, when the brethren of the Duke of Devonshire Lodge No. 8 of the Sheffield United Order of the Ark were making merry at the Hare and Hounds, it was reported to be in a most flourishing condition, the funds having considerably increased during the last year. This Ark wasn’t Noah’s but the Ark of the Covenant, a chest for stone tablets bearing the Ten Commandments: the friendly society represented a solemn agreement between officers and members. The Independent Order of the Ark arrived in Sheffield from Leeds in 1838. Six years later some of its lodges (branches) seceded to form the Sheffield United Order of the Ark, including apparently Dore’s.

Why then, twenty years later, were the brethren who decided to rebrand themselves as the Dore and Totley Sick and Funeral Society calling themselves the Duke of Devonshire Lodge of the Dore and Totley Independent Order of the Ark? Some Independent Order of the Ark lodges stayed aloof from the secession of 1844. Was this Dore’s other one?

The solidity of the Dore Lodge on the eve of reorganisation can be pictured from its two vital statistics submitted to the Registrar of Friendly Societies for 1863: funds £888, members 147. For a rural lodge these were high figures. By 1889 they had risen to £2160 and 191. The trick was to amass sufficient funds when members were young. Insolvency meant that a society would break up without compensation for anyone.