friendly society

friendly society (plural friendly societies)

1. Any of various early types of life insurance or mutual support associations. [from 17th c.]
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 635:

     At a lower social level the eighteenth century saw the launching of pioneer insurance schemes by industrial firms for their employees and the proliferation of working-class friendly societies.

• benefit society

• burial society