Who was insured in the first known life insurance policy, issued in England in 1583?

William Gibbons was the person insured by the first known life insurance policy, issued in England in 1583.

The policy was written in London for a one-year term and covered Gibbons’s life. Contemporary accounts state that the policy involved a premium of £383 6s 8d, an unusually large amount compared with the payment due if the insured person died during the term. Gibbons died within the policy period, making the contract historically notable.

This early agreement was not yet life insurance in the fully developed modern sense. It was a short-term wager-like contract rather than a product based on actuarial mortality tables, long-term reserves, and standardized underwriting. Those features emerged later as insurers gathered more reliable population and mortality data.

The 1583 policy is often called the first known life insurance policy, rather than absolutely the first insurance contract of any kind. Marine and other forms of insurance existed earlier, and historical evidence from the period is incomplete.