ABSTRACT
Tables of mortality, although they form the scientific basis, were very little used for life assurance purposes until towards the end of the eighteenth century, after the Northampton tables had been published. Other tables were in existence nearly one hundred years before, one of the first being that compiled from the statistics of the population of the town of Breslau in Silesia 1 by the British Astronomer-Royal, Halley, 2 and published in 1692. Halley at the same time advocated correct principles for annuities and assurances, which were not adopted until nearly seventy years later.
