John Weskett
English underwriter
John Weskett was an English underwriter and merchant who contributed to the understanding of insurance law in the eighteenth century.
Weskett was probably born in Leeds. It is believed to have lived between 1730 and 1800.
Marine insurance average
Weskett offered a definition of the term average in A Complete Digest of the Theory, Laws, and Practice of Insurance, (1781):
"Average means the accidents and misfortunes which happen to ships and their cargoes, from the time of their lading and sailing till their return and unlading. It is divided into three kinds : first, the simple, or particular, average, which consists in the extraordinary expenses incurred, either for the ship alone, or for the merchandize alone. Such is the loss of anchors, masts, and rigging, occasioned by the common accidents at sea; the damages which happen to merchandize by storms, capture, shipwrecks, wet, or rotting: all which must be paid by the thing that suffered the damage. Secondly, the large, or common, called gross, or general average, being those expenses incurred, and damages sustained, whether by ship or by goods, or by both, for the common good, security, and preservation both of the merchandize and vessel; consequently to be borne by the ship, freight, and cargo, and to be regulated and proportioned upon the whole. Thirdly, the small, or petty average, which means expenses for towing and piloting the ship out of or into harbours, creeks, or rivers, and other port charges : one-third of these must be charged to the ship, and two-thirds to the cargo. It also signifies a small duty which merchants who send goods in another man's ship pay to the master for his care of them, over and above the freight; hence it is expressed in the bills of lading, as paying so much freight for the said goods, with primage and average as accustomed."
Criticism
Weskett has been criticised for normalising the dehumanisation and commodification of enslaved Africans, for example Robin Pearson and David Richardson (2019) in "Insuring the Transatlantic Slave Trade" or Saidiya Hartman in Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route (2007)
Works
1781 A Complete Digest of the Theory, Laws, and Practice of Insurance, London: Frys, Couchman and Collier, 1781.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Weskett” is english underwriter. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Weskett and English, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “english underwriter” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23871978. VIAF identifies the subject as 44654007. The Library of Congress control number is no90019287. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1730, 1800, 1781 and 2019.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “John Weskett”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow John Weskett primary sources, John Weskett archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Weskett”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “John Weskett” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.