of the Society's first year of business, 104 policies had been written for a total coverage of $129,016. Expenses for the first year of Society business equaled $300.69 including salaries and rent. Detailed accounts were kept, noting charges of $1.33 for a pewter ink stand and $.50 for 50 quills. Nearly two years after incorporation, on December 4, 1796, the Society sustained its first loss from fire when William Hawkins' two brick houses at Light and Baltimore Streets (now the site of the Nations Bank Building) were destroyed. The blaze consumed a number of other businesses, homes and a church in what amounted to the city's "Great Fire" to that date. With this first loss, began the Society's tradition of prompt and full payment to the policyholder. Baltimore Equitable insured the property of a number of the city's prominent citizens. In 1803, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, insured four brick buildings on the north side of King George Street (now Lombard) between Stillhouse Street (now Front) and Jones' Falls. In 1838, Homewood the home of Charles Carroll Jr. now on the Johns Hopkins University campus, was first insured. When the owner cancelled this policy in 1866, the Society refunded the entire original payment. Then in 1903, when Johns Hopkins University acquired the mansion, the university insured it again. The Society was an eyewitness to the tumultuous times which the nineteenth century presented to the nation. In 1814, the British burned Washington and turned toward Baltimore where they intended to do the same. Francis Scott Key watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the harbor where he penned the poem which became our national anthem. Six months after the British forces were defeated at the Battle of Baltimore and the city had been spared the destruction it had feared, the Society expressed its relief. The minutes recorded at its annual meeting on April 3, 1815, noted, "Peace and the restoration of tranquility...(leave) the board the opportunity and satisfaction to record... that there was no loss sustained." Had the British been successful in their land and sea attacks on Baltimore, the minutes would have told of a very different outcome. While the 1860s saw life in Baltimore altered, the period also brought change to the Baltimore Equitable Society. On March 13, 1865, the members present at a general meeting voted to issue perpetual policies. By this