Irish Government Tontine 1777: List of subscribers and nominees in the three classes
Type
Government Tontine
Description
Ireland's three government tontines (1773, 1775, 1777) used a three-class age structure that separated nominees into groups of 0-19, 20-39, and 40+ years old. Despite an 80-year gap since the first English tontine (1693), Irish awareness of the scheme was high due to extensive newspaper coverage of international tontines, creating an informed investing class. When Irish Attorney General Philip Tisdale proposed the first Irish tontine in 1773 to address government funding deficits, he faced parliamentary resistance from critics who dismissed it as a foreign or lottery-like scheme unsuitable for a free government. However, all three tontines were ultimately successful, being fully subscribed and raising a combined IR£740,000 for government coffers. Shares were priced at £100 each, with annuities in the 1773 tontine also capped at £100 in order to limit government commitments; this provision was dropped for subsequent schemes. While popular and effective as fundraising tools, tontines proved expensive for the government, leading to their discontinuation after 1777, though annuity obligations continued until the death of the last nominee in 1870. Note: By the 1770s the Irish Pound traded almost at parity with the pound sterling.
Note: By the 1770s the Irish Pound traded almost at parity with the pound sterling
Sources: British National Archives, NDO 3-25 - List of subscribers and nominees in the three classes of tontine 1777.
Reproduced with permission from the British National Archives. Please appropriately cite any sources used.
