Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/22



Peter Pounce (Richard Lewis), 1756; Bentham's Works, x. 65; Hawkins's Johnson, 566; Rutt's Life of Priestley, i. 19; Priestley's Essay on Government, sect. x.] 

ANSELL, CHARLES, F.R.S., F.S.A (1794–1881), known for some years before his death as the father of the profession of actuaries, was born (probably in Essex) in 1794, entered the Atlas Fire and Life Assurance Company in 1808, and took a prominent position on the staff in 1810. In 1823 he was appointed actuary of the life branch of the company, and held the office down to 1864—a period of forty-one years —when he retired from active official life, but still remained the consulting actuary of the company. He also filled a similar post in the National Provident, the Friends' Provident, and the Clergy Mutual Life Offices, and was, likewise, the actuary of the Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund.

He was on several occasions called upon to advise on various schemes of national finance, notably on the government superannuation scheme, which ultimately fell through. He gave evidence before the select parliamentary committee (1841-43) to consider the law of joint-stock companies, and the select committee on assurance associations (1853).

His chief practice for many years was in connection with the actuarial problems involved in the working of friendly societies. He published a work upon that subject in 1835, which attracted much attention at the time, and remained a useful handbook for many years afterwards. It was, indeed, almost a first effort to treat friendly societies from a scientific standpoint. The work was published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He gave evidence before the select parliamentary committee on friendly societies in 1849, and before some of the later committees. Many years since he was instructed by the then Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield) to make some calculations of this class, and he named as his fee 100 guineas. 'A hundred guineas, Mr. Ansell! Why, there are many curates in my diocese who don't get more than that for a year's services.' 'That may be,' was the quiet rejoinder; 'but actuaries are bishops.' The fee was paid.

Mr. Ansell resided during the later years of his life at Brighton, but he was only a few years before his death high sheriff of Merionethshire, where he had considerable landed property. He superintended the bonus investigation of the National Provident Association when close upon eighty years of age, and died at the close of 1881, at the age of 87. His personal estate was proved for 21,000l.



ANSELL, GEORGE FREDERICK (1826–1880), scientific inventor, was born at Carshalton on 4 March 1826. He was apprenticed for four years to a surgeon, and studied medicine with the intention of adopting a medical life as his profession, but abandoned it for chemistry. After undergoing a course of instruction at the Royal College of Chemistry, he became an assistant to Dr. A. W. Hofmann at the Royal School of Mines. In 1854 he gave lectures in chemistry at the Panopticon in Leicester Square, London, but that institution did not last long, and Mr. Ansell accepted from Mr. Thomas Graham, in November 1856, a situation in the Royal Mint. He remained in this office for more than ten years, when differences of opinion between him and its chiefs led to the loss of his position. After his retirement and until his death, which took place on 21 Dec. 1880, he practised as an analyst. Mr. Ansell devoted much attention to the dangers arising from firedamp in collieries, and made a valuable series of experiments on the subject in the Ince Hall colliery near Wigan. The 'firedamp indicator,' which he subsequently patented, has been adopted with considerable success in many of the collieries on the continent. For the cyclopædia of Mr. Charles Tomlinson he wrote treatise on coining—one hundred copies of which were struck of for private circulation—and his work on the 'Royal Mint' was an amplification of this article. This volume first appeared in 1870, and was reissued in the next year; its popularity was somewhat marred by the introduction of the narrative of his quarrels with his colleagues in the office, but it contained much information not to be found elsewhere. Several articles on the subjects in which he took most interest were contributed by him to the seventh edition of Ure's 'Dictionary of Arts,' &c.



ANSELM, (1033–1109), archbishop of Canterbury, was born at or near Aosta about the year 1033, or two years before the death of Cnut, king of England, and two years before William the Conqueror became duke of Normandy. At the date of Anselm's birth Aosta was on the borders of Lombardy and Burgundy, but was reckoned as belonging to the latter, which