A 13th Century Pension Plan
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has recently aquired a document from 1251 granting a pension on his retirement to Roger of Rattlesden, rector of the church of Cringleford (near Norwich).
Two years earlier, the Bishop of Norwich had founded St. Giles’s Hospital (which survives to this day as the Great Hospital). It was endowed with some land and six churches including Cringleford, but the ownership of the churches would only be transferred when their respective rectors died. The deal with Roger of Rattlesden included the clause that ownership of Cringleford Church would be transferred earlier on his retirement and this funded his pension of 40 shillings or £2 per annum.
This is not the first record of an occupational pension. The earliest known is Robert, Abbot of Glastonbury, who retired in 1234 with a pension of £60 per annum.
Many thanks to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for their research and the earlier works on which it is built. Please see http://www.theactuary.com/features/2017/06/a-very-early-occupational-pension/ for more detail. a list of sources and a translation of the 1251 document from Latin into modern English
(20/09/2017)
