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--State lottery 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.

Very numerous were the unfortunate Cavaliers who had been ruined by supporting the Royal cause, and who could get no compensation from the Government. To help them, some asked to get rid of their plate, etc., by lottery, as we have seen in 1660, and, for their assistance, in 1668 a book lottery was established. In the _Gazette_ of May 18 of that year is the following advertisement:--“Mr. Ogilby’s lottery of books opens on Monday, the 25th instant, at the Old Theatre between Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Vere Street, where all persons concerned may repair on Monday, May 18, and see the volumes, and put in their money.” On May 25 is announced, “Mr. Ogilby’s lottery of books (adventures coming in so fast that they cannot, in so short a time, be methodically registered) opens not till Tuesday, the 2nd of June; then not failing to draw, at the Old Theatre,” etc.

Letters patent, in behalf of the Loyalists, were from time to time renewed, and from the _Gazette_ of October 11, 1675, it appears, by those dated June 19 and December 17, 1764, there were granted, for thirteen years to come, “all lotteries whatsoever, invented, or to be invented, to several truly loyal and indigent officers, in consideration of their many faithful services and sufferings, with prohibition to all others to use or set up the said lotteries,” unless deputation were obtained from those officers.

Prince Rupert died November 29, 1682, and his jewels were to be disposed of by means of a lottery, but the public had been so cheated by previous schemes, that they would not subscribe unless the King consented to see that all was fair, and that Francis Child, the goldsmith (or banker) at Temple Bar, should be trustee on their behalf.

The _London Gazette_, September 27-October 1, 1683, has the following notice of this lottery: “These are to give Notice, that the Jewels of his late Highness Prince _Rupert_, have been particularly valued and appraised by Mr. _Isaac Legouch_, Mr. _Christopher Rosse_, and Mr. _Richard Beauvoir_, Jewellers, the whole amounting to Twenty Thousand Pounds, and will be sold by way of Lottery, each Lot to be Five Pounds. The biggest Prize will be a great Pearl Necklace valued at £8000, and none less than £100. A printed Particular of the said Appraisement, with their Division into Lots, will be delivered _gratis_ by Mr. _Francis Child_, Goldsmith, at Temple Bar, _London_, into whose hands, such as are willing to be Adventurers, are desired to pay their Money, on or about the first day of _November_ next. As soon as the whole sum is paid in, a short day will be appointed (which ’tis hoped will be before _Christmas_) and notified in the _Gazette_, for the Drawing thereof, which will be done in His Majesties Presence, who is pleased to declare, that he himself will see all the Prizes put in amongst the Blanks, and that the whole shall be managed with all Equity and Fairness; nothing being intended but the Sale of the said Jewels at a moderate Value. And it is further notified for the satisfaction of all such as shall be Adventurers, that the said Mr. _Child_ shall and will stand obliged to each of them for their several Adventures, till the said Lottery be drawn. And that each Adventurer shall receive their Money back, if the said Lottery be not drawn and finished before the first day of _February_ next.”

There are three other notices of this lottery, one of which (_London Gazette_, November 22-26, 1683) tells us the _modus operandi_ of its drawing. “As soon as the Money is all come in, a day will be prefixed, and published for the drawing thereof, as has been formerly notified. In the morning of which day His Majesty will be pleased, publickly, in the Banquetting-House to see the Blanks told over, that they may not exceed their Number, and to read the Papers (which shall be exactly the same size with the Blanks) on which the Prizes are to be written; which, being rolled up in his presence, His Majesty will mix amongst the Blanks, as may also any of the Adventurers there present, that shall desire it. This being done, a Child appointed by His Majesty, or the Adventurers, shall, out of the Mass of Lots so mixed, take out the number that each Person adventures for, and put them into boxes, (which shall be provided on purpose) on the covers whereof, each Adventurer’s Name shall be written with the number of Lots He or She adventures for; the Boxes to be filled in succession as the Moneys was paid in. As soon as all the Lots are thus distributed, they shall be opened as fast as may be, and the Prizes then and there delivered to those that win them; all which, ’tis hoped, will be done and finished in one day.”

I cannot find whether this lottery was ever drawn.

Perhaps the smallest sum ever adventured in a regular lottery was a penny, which was drawn at the Dorset Garden Theatre, near Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, on October 19, 1698, with a capital prize of a thousand pounds. There was a metrical pamphlet (price threepence) published thereon in the same year, entitled “The Wheel of Fortune; or, Nothing for a Penny,” etc., “written by a Person who was cursed Mad he had not the Thousand Pound Lot.” He thus describes the drawing--

“So a Lord of high Title and Birth, First vow’d he was just, And in, Sirs, he thrust The Tickets, which caus’d mighty mirth. Those who were before sad, Look’d jocund and glad, Not doubting but right would be done; Since a Peer who laid claim To Honour and Fame, Swore that all should be paid that was won. For tho’ we all knew ’Twas certain and true, That the Tickets should all be drawn out, Yet some were afraid They would never be paid, And, at what time they will’s, yet a doubt.”

[Illustration]

But not long after this, the State began to see what a profitable business lottery-keeping was, and applied it to its own purpose. In 1694, by Act of Parliament (5 Will. and Mary, c. 7), a loan of £1,000,000 was authorized to be raised by lottery in shares of £10 each, the contributors being entitled to annuities for sixteen years from September 29, 1694, charged on a yearly fund of £140,000, appropriated out of certain salt and beer duties named in the Act. Holders of the blanks received 10 per cent. on every share, and 2500 fortunate ticket-holders a larger payment; of which the principal prize was £1000 a year. The contributors were allowed 14 per cent. for prompt payment from the day of payment to September 29, 1694.

In 1697 (8 Will. III. c. 22) a loan of £1,400,000 was authorized to be raised by a lottery of 140,000 tickets of £10 each. Of these, 3500 were to be prizes of from £10 to £1000; the holders of 136,500 blanks, and of 2800, £10 prizes, were to receive back £10 with interest from June 24, 1697, at the rate of ¼ _d._ per day (_i.e._ 2½ per cent. per day, or £3 16_s._ 0½_d._ per cent. per annum) until the whole was paid.

Then came a virtuous wave, and by 10 and 11 Will. III. c. 17 lotteries were suppressed after December 29, 1699, the preamble to which Act sets forth that, “Whereas several evil-disposed persons, for divers years past, have set up many mischievous and unlawful games, called _lotteries_, not only in the Cities of _London_ and _Westminster_, and in the suburbs thereof, and places adjoining, but in most of the eminent towns and places in _England_, and in the Dominion of _Wales_, and have thereby most unjustly and fraudulently got to themselves great sums of money from the children and servants of several gentlemen, traders and merchants, and from other unwary persons, to the utter ruin and impoverishment of many families, and to the reproach of the _English_ laws and government, by cover of several patents or grants under the great seal of _England_ for the said lotteries, or some of them; which said grants or patents are against the common good, trade, welfare and peace of His Majesty’s kingdoms: for remedy whereof be it enacted, adjudged and declared, and it is hereby enacted, adjudged and declared by the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all such lotteries, and all other lotteries, are common and publick nuisances, and that all grants, patents and licences for such lotteries, or any other lotteries, are void and against law.”

But this show of virtue only lasted a very short time, for in 1710 (8 Anne, c. 4) a loan of £1,500,000 was negotiated by means of a lottery--of £150,000 tickets at £10 each, every ticket-holder becoming entitled to an annuity for thirty-two years, the blanks to 14_s._ per annum, and the prizes to greater annuities, from £5 to £1000 per annum.

Previous to this there was a private lottery, the story of which Hutchins tells in his “History of the County of Dorset.”[15] The Sydenham here spoken of was the nephew of the celebrated Thomas Sydenham, M.D., who adopted the cool treatment in small-pox, and used quinine (or bark, as it was then called) and laudanum in agues. “This manor and farm continued in the Sydenhams, till William Sydenham, the last of the family, esquire of the body to King William III., and the last that held that office, put up his estate at a private lottery. It was generally supposed that there was some trick designed; for it was contrived, or at least hoped, that the fortunate ticket would fall to the share of a confidant in the family, who they imagined would have been prevailed upon to return the estate upon a small consideration. That ticket happened to be hers; but, to their great disappointment, she immediately married Doyly Michel, Esq. But, it being necessary that Mr. Sydenham and his two daughters should make a formal surrender of the estate to the vendee, on their refusal they were committed to Dorchester prison about 1709, where they ended their days.”

[15] Ed. 1864, vol. ii. p. 706.

In 1711 there were two State Lotteries. The first (9 Anne, c. 6) was for a loan of £1,500,000 by the sale of 150,000 lottery tickets at £10 each; the whole money to be repaid, both on blanks and prizes, in thirty-two years, with interest at 6 per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly; and the additional sum of £428,570 to be divided amongst the prizes, and paid with the same interest in thirty-two years. The second (9 Anne, c. 23) was a loan of £2,000,000, by the sale of 20,000 lottery tickets at £100 each, divided into five classes with the chance of receiving from £10 to £135, according to the class drawn, with interest at 6 per cent. until paid off. This lottery consisted of all prizes, these being formed by dividing an additional sum of £602,200 among the subscribers, those in the lowest class obtaining a profit of £10.

There were also two in 1712. One (10 Anne, c. 19) was a loan of £1,800,000 by the sale of 180,000 tickets at £10 each; the whole sum advanced, with an additional capital of £541,740, to be repaid in thirty-two years, with interest at 6 per cent., payable half-yearly. The other (10 Anne, c. 26) was for the same amount, only they were to be £100 tickets divided into five classes, with an additional capital of £541,990, to be repaid with interest at 6 per cent. in thirty-two years.

Next year, 1713 (12 Anne, stat. I. c. 11), there was a comparatively small lottery of half a million, granted to discharge the debt and arrears of the civil list, raised by the sale of 50,000 lottery tickets at £10 each; the whole sum, with an additional capital of £133,010, to be repaid with interest at 4 per cent. in thirty-two years. In the last year of the reign of Queen Anne, 1714 (12 Anne, stat. II. c. 9), a loan was negotiated of £1,400,000, by means of 140,000 lottery tickets at £10 each, the blanks to have their whole money repaid, with interest at 5 per cent. in thirty-two years, and the prizes to be formed by an additional capital of £476,400: the whole capital of the prizes to bear 4 per cent. interest.

Whether Jacobite trouble was the cause or not, there was no State lottery until 1719. But private lotteries seem to have been to the fore, so much so that in 1718 they were again made illegal by Act of Parliament (5 Geo. I. c. 9, s. 43), whereby a fine of £100 could be inflicted on the transgressors, but the Act was a dead letter. In 1719 two State lotteries were launched (5 Geo. I. c. 3), both for the same amount, and under similar conditions, except that the first was to bear interest at 4 per cent. until redeemed by Parliament, and the second was to be paid at the expiration of thirty-two years. They were each for half a million, to cover which, 168,665 tickets of £3 each were issued, making a total of £505,995, the excess over the half-million being taken for the expenses of the lottery.

In 1719 was instituted a very curious lottery, which exists to this day, and is thoroughly legal. It is no less than a marriage portion given by lottery every year to a girl who has been brought up in Raine’s School, in the parish of St. George-in-the-East, London. I take the following newspaper cutting, which, though not dated, the occurrence it narrates must have taken place between 1842 and 1862, during the time the Rev. Bryan King was rector.

“Wednesday, being the first of May, a most interesting ceremony took place connected with the asylum and schools founded in 1719 by Mr. Henry Raine, formerly a brewer, near Parson’s Island, Wapping. This gentleman, having amassed a princely fortune, endowed, by deed of gift, the above charity. There are vested in trustees, formed into a corporation, a perpetual annuity of £240 a year, and the sum of £4000, which is laid out in a purchase. The charity combines two objects. It provides for the scriptural education of fifty boys and fifty girls; and in the asylum provision is made for forty other girls, who are taught needle and house work, in order to qualify them for service, to which they are put when they have been put upon the foundation three or four years. During the whole of this time they are entirely maintained; and, after the age of twenty-two years, six of them, producing certificates of their good behaviour during their servitude, and continuing unmarried, and members of the Episcopal Church of England, draw twice a year for a marriage portion of £100, to settle them in the world, with such honest and industrious persons as the majority of the trustees shall approve of. The bridegrooms must belong to the parish of St. George-in-the-East, St. John, Wapping, or St. Paul, Shadwell, and be members of the Church of England.

“On Wednesday morning, at nine o’clock, Sarah Salmon and Mary Ann Pitman were married in consonance with the terms of the will; after which the whole of the trustees and children of both establishments attended Divine Service. The procession to and from the church was most orderly, and thousands assembled to witness the interesting scene. Immediately after the return of the governors and children to the asylum, the process of 'drawing’ took place. There were four candidates, and four pieces of paper being rolled up by the governors, three of which were blanks, were dropped into a wide-necked tea-canister, and shaken well together. After a hymn had been sung, each candidate was taken by the arm by a governor, and led to the drawing. Having taken out one roll each, they were led to the opposite end of the room. The rector, the Rev. B. King, then desired each of them to open their tickets, and the prize of £100 was discovered to be in the possession of Jane McCormack. The successful candidate was then addressed in a most touching manner by the rector, and exhorted to seek a partner for life who would strive to make her happy by his affection, and keep her comfortable by his industry. Those who were unsuccessful, he also addressed with much earnestness and feeling, bidding them not despair, as they would have the opportunity of trying again. To witness this part of the ceremony, not fewer than a thousand persons were present, including the principal families in the neighbourhood, and a great number of ladies.”

Since the above was written, this charity has been revised, and, by the scheme of January 26, 1886, the governors are empowered to set apart the yearly sum of £105 out of the income of the foundation, to provide marriage portions, according to the will of the founder; but they may, in any year, intermit the payment of any marriage portion, and they may, at any time, by resolution, altogether abolish the payment of marriage portions, and devote the money to educational purposes under the scheme.