BENJAMIN WELD,
WILLIAM A. KENT,
ANDREW SIGOURNEY,
Boston, Nov. 8, 1814. Managers.
After lotteries had been drawn, notices frequently appeared in the papers announcing the names of the lucky prize-winners. For instance, a Boston paper of 1790 says: "The highest Prize (£3,000) in the New York Lottery was drawn by 2 deserving Servant girls of New York;" and in Sept. 21, 1793: "The highest prize in the 4th Class of the State Lottery ($1,000) was drawn by Mr. Benjamin Blodgett, of this town;" and the "Salem Gazette" of 1815 says: "Luther Martin, Esq., has drawn $15,000, the Highest prize in the Baltimore Hospital Lottery;" and it adds: "Those who envy the good Fortune of Mr. Martin will call on Cushing & Appleton for Tickets in the Harvard College Lottery." In November, 1790, the "Salem Gazette" says that the call for tickets in the Massachusetts Semi-annual Lottery "has been so great in the other States that the Managers expect to draw much sooner than the time which was at first mentioned;" also that the tickets in the Marblehead Lottery are meeting with a rapid sale; and concludes that "this does not indicate a scarcity of Cash."
Here are some curious advertisements:—
From the "Columbian Centinel," Boston, May 22, 1790.
Williamstown FREE SCHOOL Lottery.
We are authorised to aſſure the Publick, and we do aſſure them—that the 7th Claſs of this Lottery will not only commence drawing on Monday next, but will poſitively be completed on Tueſday morning—and a liſt of Prizes will be published in the Centinel the ſame week.
The metropolis of Maſſachuſetts hath ever been celebrated for the attention it hath paid to the education of its youth. In the elder world, a Franklin hath been a living teſtimony of it, as well as in the younger. But not confined to the youth of the town is this benevolent diſpoſition—it extends to the remoteſt parts of the Commonwealth; and hath been abundantly manifeſted in the liberal encouragement given to the Williamſtown Free-School Lottery. The Claſs to be drawn on Monday next, will perhaps, be the laſt opportunity our citizens may have to gratify their humane wiſhes—which they will not let paſs unimproved, eſpecially as great pecuniary profit may attend the gratification.
"Salem Gazette," Nov. 24, 1812.