A History of English Lotteries

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Antiquity of the Lot—Old lotteries—Derivation of
word —First lottery in England: its scheme	1
CHAPTER II.
Posies and mottoes—Forcing the subscriptions—Towns and
their mottoes—Lottery for armour in 1585—A Royal lottery
at Harefield in 1602	17
CHAPTER III.
The Virginia lottery of 1612—Private lottery—Licence for
lottery to supply London with water—Two other schemes
—Lottery in behalf of fishing vessels—Irish Land
Lottery—One for redeeming English slaves—One for poor
maimed soldiers—Gambling lottery, concession for—“Royal
Oak” Lottery—Evils of lotteries—“Royal Fishing Company”
Lottery—Patentees	28
CHAPTER IV.
A book lottery—One for poor military officers—Lottery for
Prince Rupert’s jewels—A penny lottery—First State
lottery—Another in 1697—Private lotteries suppressed
—Statelottery in 1710—Curious history of a private
lottery—State lotteries in the reigns of Anne and
George I.—Private lotteries again suppressed—Raine’s
Charity—Marriage by lottery	44
CHAPTER V.
Penalties on private lotteries—State lottery not subscribed
for—Lapse in State lotteries—Private lotteries
—Westminster Bridge lottery—State lotteries—Discredit
thrown on them—British Museum lottery—Leheup’s fraud	59
CHAPTER VI.
Crowd at a lottery—Another State lottery, eighty-seven
blanks to a prize—A ticket sold twice over—Extravagant
prices paid for tickets—Praying for success—A lucky
innkeeper—Lottery for Cox’s Museum—Adam’s Adelphi Lottery
—Blue-coat boys and the lottery—Future arrangements for
drawing	71
CHAPTER VII.
Counterfeiting lottery tickets—Curious lotteries—Suicide
—Method of starting a State lottery—Lottery
office-keepers to be licensed—Charles (or “Patch”) Price	86
CHAPTER VIII.
Lottery for the Leverian Museum—Prosecution of unlicensed
lottery office-keepers—Suicide—Robbery of employers—Sharp
practice over a prize—Cheating by lottery office-keepers
—Complaint of a prisoner	103
CHAPTER IX.
Winners of prizes—Attempt to put down the practice of
insuring—Steps taken to prevent it—Specimen handbill
—Bish, the lottery office-keeper—Lottery for the “Pigot”
diamond—Lottery-office agencies—Shortening the time of
drawing the lottery—Story of Baron d’Aguilar	118
CHAPTER X.
The Boydell Lottery—Bowyer’s “Historic” Lottery	133
CHAPTER XI.
Launching a lottery—“The City” Lottery for houses—Poetic
handbills thereon—Parliamentary Committee on the lottery
—Report and evidence	147
CHAPTER XII.
“The Lottery Alphabet”—“The Philosopher’s Stone”—
“Fortune’s Ladder”—Enigmatical handbill—Lottery drawn
on St. Valentine’s Day—“Public Prizes”—and other
poetical handbills	162
CHAPTER XIII.
“Twenty Thousand; or, Tom Truelove’s Journal”—“London
and the Lottery”—“The Persian Ambassador”—“An Enigma”
—“Gently over the Stones”	180
CHAPTER XIV.
“Master and Man”—“Altogether”—Dr. Thornton’s “Royal
Botanical Lottery”—“Two Gold Finches”—“Dennis
Brulgruddery”—“Shakespeare’s Seven Ages”	189
CHAPTER XV.
A lucky Spaniard—Miss Mitford’s prize—The Spectator
on lucky numbers—Other anecdotes on luck—“Gretna Green”
—“A Prize for Poor Jack”	204
CHAPTER XVI.
Beginning of the end of lotteries—Curious handbills	217
CHAPTER XVII.
Protests against lotteries—Epitaph on Vansittart—“Three
Royal Weddings”—More opposition to the lottery—
“Twelfth Night Character” handbills—Ditto of tradesmen	221
CHAPTER XVIII.
“A Dialogue”—“The Race of Fortune”—“The Wish”—Enigmatical
handbill	245
CHAPTER XIX.
Tomkins’s picture lottery—The lottery abolished—Handbills	252
CHAPTER XX.
The last lottery—Attempts to get up excitement—The
procession—Alteration of date—Advertising car—“A
Ballad, 1826”—Drawing of the last lottery	265
CHAPTER XXI.
Handbills—Metrical list of lottery-office keepers—Bish’s
manifesto—“Epitaph in Memory of the State Lottery”—
“Little Goes”—The Times thereon—Their effect on the
public	279
CHAPTER XXII.
Description of lottery office-keepers—Insuring numbers
in the lottery—Servants bitten by the mania—Morocco
men—Many prosecutions—Cost to the country—Several
law cases—Story of Mr. Bartholomew	293
CHAPTER XXIII.
Suicides caused by the lottery—Story of a footman—Anecdote
told by Theodore Hook—Description of a lottery from its
commencement to its end	310
CHAPTER XXIV.
The lottery wheels—Anecdotes connected with the lottery—
The Glasgow lotteries—Advertising foreign lotteries—
“Art Union” Act—Dethier’s “Twelfth Cake Lottery”—
Tontines—Raffling—Pious lotteries—Sweet-stuff lotteries
for children—Hamburg lotteries	325
CHAPTER XXV.
“The Missing Word Competition:” its rise and fall	339
Index	353

A HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LOTTERIES.