royal coat of arms By the King, A PROCLAMATION For the better Execution of the Office of making and Registering Policies of Assurances in London.  
JAMES R.  
WHereas Our late Royal Brother King Charles the Second, did by several Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England, Grant to Sir Allen Broderick and his Assigns, the Office of Making and Registering of all manner of Assurances, Policys, Intimations, Renunciations, and all other things whatsoever, that should be made upon any Ship or Ships, Merchandizes, or any other thing or things in the Royal Exchange, or in any other Place or Places within the City of London, by any manner of Person or Persons whatsoever, of what Nation, Condition or Quality soever he or they be, either going out of this Realm or coming in, or going or coming into any other Place or Places whatsoever, for his own Life, and the Life of William Broderick Merchant, and for One and thirty Years after the death of the Survivor of them, with the Feés and Profits thereof. And whereas several persons pretending to be ignorant of the said Grants, and not respecting the Public Good, nor considering the great Advantages which would most certainly accrue to the Merchants and other Traders of the said City of London, by a due and ready compliance therewith, Do for their own private Lucre, presume to erect and set up private Offices for making Policies of Assurances, and make no Entries thereof in the Office aforesaid, by which means Merchants and other Traders not being able to know what Assurances are made upon any Ship or Goods, do frequently Assure more than the value of such Ship and Goods, to the great discouraging of Trade. We have therefore thought fit by th●s Our Royal Proclamation, with the Advice of Our Privy Council, to Publish and make known the said Grants of the said Office to all Our loving Subjects, to the end all Persons concerned may have recourse thereunto, and that all Frauds and Abuses touching the Execution thereof may for the future be redressed, and the Persons Interessed therein, quieted and settled in the Possession thereof, according to the purport and intent of the said Letters Patents; We do hereby strictly Charge and Command all manner of Person and Persons whatsoever he or they be, as well Our own Subjects as Strangers, who within the Royal Exchange aforesaid, or in any other Place or Places within Our said City of London, shall make or cause to be made any manner of Assurance either upon Ships, Goods or Merchandizes, or of Moneys taken upon the Hazard or Safe proceedings of any Ship or Ships, Goods or Merchandise, or of any other thing whatsoever touching or concerning the same, That from henceforth the same be made and Registered by the Assigns of the said Sir Allen Broderick pursuant to the said Letters Patents, and that no other Person or Persons do presume to Erect any other Office or Offices for Making or Registering any Assurances or Policies contrary to the said Letters Patents, as they will answer the same at their Peril.  
Given at Our Court at Whitehall this 30th day of April 1686. In the Second Year of Our Reign. GOD SAVE THE KING.   

LONDON, Printed by Charles Bill, Henry Hills, and Thomas Newcomb, Printers to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty. 1687.