A History of English Lotteries

A History of English Lotteries by John Ashton

John Ashton's *A History of English Lotteries* traces the practice of raising money by chance from its ancient roots to its final abolition in nineteenth-century Britain. Ashton opens by situating the lottery within the broader antiquity of "the lot," citing biblical, Greek, Roman, and Northern European precedents for casting lots to settle disputes, divide property, and distribute gifts, before disputing the common claim that the lottery itself originated in sixteenth-century Italy. He argues instead for a Northern European linguistic origin, tracing "lottery" to the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic root *hleotan*/*hlot* rather than the Italian *lotto*, and identifies the earliest known European lottery as a 1446 event in Bruges. The book's core narrative begins with England's first national lottery, authorized by Queen Elizabeth I in 1566 and drawn in 1569 at St. Paul's Churchyard, ostensibly to fund harbor repairs. Ashton reproduces its elaborate proclamation in full, detailing the ticket price, prize structure of plate and tapestries, and the whimsical mottoes subscribers attached to their entries, alongside evidence of the Crown's struggle to sell enough tickets and the municipal pressure applied on towns to subscribe. He follows subsequent Stuart-era lotteries, including one for armor, a courtly entertainment lottery staged for Elizabeth at Harefield, and various seventeenth-century schemes tied to specific projects: bringing water to London, financing fishing vessels, Irish land claims, ransoming English slaves, and supporting maimed soldiers. This period also introduces the notorious "Royal Oak" and related gaming lotteries under Charles II, whose patentees—including the shadowy Francisco Corbett—engaged in overlapping concessions, bribery, and outright fraud, prompting repeated royal proclamations against abuse even as the Crown continued licensing new schemes. A recurring theme is the tension between private lotteries (repeatedly declared illegal nuisances by Parliament, notably in 1699 and 1739) and the government's own increasingly systematic use of lotteries as a revenue and loan-raising instrument throughout the eighteenth century. Ashton catalogs the annual State Lotteries authorized by Acts of Parliament from Queen Anne's reign onward, listing subscription amounts, prize structures, and net profits, and describes how lotteries funded major public works, most notably Westminster Bridge and the founding acquisitions of the British Museum (via the 1753 Act purchasing Sloane's collection). He also recounts privately sanctioned lotteries used to dispose of valuable property that lacked buyers—Prince Rupert's jewels, Cox's mechanical museum, the Adelphi buildings, Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery paintings, Bowyer's engravings, Dr. Thornton's botanical works, and Sir Ashton Lever's natural history collection—each accompanied by contemporary advertisements and satirical verse. Much of the book dwells on the social and criminal underworld the lottery generated: forged tickets, rigged drawings involving bribed Christ's Hospital "Blue-coat boys" who drew the numbers, swindling lottery-office keepers like the disreputable Shergold and Margray firms, and the illegal "insurance" trade that let poorer subscribers bet small sums on daily drawing outcomes. Ashton devotes a chapter to the career of Charles "Patch" Price, a lottery office-keeper turned Bank of England note forger who evaded capture for years through elaborate disguises before hanging himself in prison. He also documents the flamboyant advertising of Thomas Bish, the era's dominant lottery contractor, reproducing dozens of his rhymed handbills, songs, and enigmatic puzzles designed to entice subscribers, alongside similar promotional material from rival firms. Parliamentary and public opposition mounts across the book's later chapters: an 1808 Committee of the House of Commons gathered testimony on lotteries' devastating effects on ordinary families, citing cases of ruin, family breakdown, and suicide tied to lottery insurance and speculation. Despite reasoned attacks from members like Mr. Lyttleton and Mr. Parnell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer repeatedly defended the practice as fiscally necessary. Ashton includes anecdotes illustrating popular superstition around "lucky numbers," including a story from Mary Russell Mitford and a passage from Addison's *Spectator* on the psychology of number selection, as well as accounts of individuals whose fortunes turned on chance ticket choices. The narrative closes with the lottery's slow legislative strangulation: the 1823 Act providing for discontinuance after one final large drawing, the winding-down of the Lottery Commission over subsequent years, and the extinction of a fundraising method that had operated continuously, in one form or another, since Elizabeth's reign. Throughout, Ashton relies heavily on primary sources—proclamations, Acts of Parliament, newspaper advertisements, court records, and verse handbills—to build a social history of gambling, public finance, and popular culture rather than a purely institutional or legal account. A charitable curiosity, the still-surviving Raine's Charity marriage-portion lottery for East London schoolgirls, is offered as a benign coda showing the lottery form persisting even after state lotteries ended.

By John Ashton · First published 1893 · Genre: History, Social History, British History · 25 chapters · 72,130 words

First lines

Antiquity of _the Lot_ -- Old lotteries -- Derivation of word -- First lottery in England: its scheme.

So sang Henry Fielding in his play of "The Lottery," which was first acted at Drury Lane Theatre, January 1, 1732; and I think those who have patience to read these pages will endorse his words.

What this Textopian page supports

A History of English Lotteries is listed on Textopian as a historical account by John Ashton, dated 1893 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Genres

Tags

British history · gambling · public finance · social history · economic history · government policy · charitable fundraising · state-sponsored games · 18th century · 19th century · historical records · popular culture

Contents

More by John Ashton