There was a Lottery, in which the subscription was a penny, and the Capital prize was One Thousand Pounds, drawn on 19th Oct. 1698, at the Dorset Garden Theatre, near Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, but when William III. came to the throne, it was seen that the Lottery was a very profitable thing, and the Government took it unto itself for its own purposes. In 1694, £1,000,000 was raised by Lottery, and in 1697, £1,400,000—but in 1699, by 10 and 11 Will. III., c. 17, lotteries were suppressed, the preamble to the Act stating, “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.”
It must have been about this time (for in 1698-9 three expeditions sailed from Scotland to Darien) that Ward wrote in The London Spy a description of the Lottery fever in London:
“The Gazette and Post-Papers lay by Neglected, and nothing was Pur’d over in the Coffee Houses, but the Ticket-Catalogues; No talking of the Jubilee, the want of Current Trade with France, or the Scotch Settlement at Darien; Nothing Buz’d about by the Purblind Trumpeters of State News, but Blank and Benefit. My Son had Five Pound in such a Lottery, but got nothing; my Daughter, says another, had but Five Shillings, and got the Twenty Pound Prize. People running up and down the Streets in Crowds and Numbers, as if one end of the Town was on Fire, and the other were running to help ‘em off with their Goods. One Stream of Coachmen, Footmen, Prentice Boys, and Servant Wenches flowing one way, with wonderful hopes of getting an estate for three pence. Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen and Traders, Marry’d Ladies, Virgin Madams, Jilts, etc.; moving on Foot, in Sedans, Chariots, and Coaches, another way; with a pleasing Expectancy of getting Six Hundred a Year for a Crown.
“Thus were all the Fools in Town so busily employed in running up and down from one Lottery, or another, that it was as much as London could do to Conjure together such Numbers of Knaves as might Cheat ‘em fast enough of their Money. The Unfortunate crying out, A Cheat, a Cheat, a Confounded Cheat, nothing of Fairness in’t. The Fortunate, in opposition to the other, crying, ’Tis all Fair, all Fair; the Fairest Adventure that ever was drawn. And thus, every Body, according to their Success, Expressing variously their Sentiments; tho’ the Losers, who may be said to be in the Wrong of it, to venture their Money, yet, were they most Right in their Conjectures of the Project, and the Gainers, who were in the Right of it, to hazard their Money, because they won, were most Wrong in their opinion of the matter. For I have much ado to forbear believing that Luck in a Bag is almost as Honest as Fortune in a Wheel, or any other of the like Projects. Truly, says my Friend, I confess I cannot conceive any extraordinary Opinion of the Fairness of any Lottery, for I am apt to believe that whenever such a number of Fools fall into a Knave’s hand, he will make the most of ‘em; and I think the Parliament could not have given the Nation greater Assurances of their especial Regard to the Welfare of the Publick, than by suppressing all Lotteries, which only serve to Buoy up the mistaken Multitude with Dreams of Golden Showers, to the Expence of that little Money, which, with hard Labour they have Earn’d; and often to the Neglect of their Business, which doubles the Inconveniency. The Gentry, indeed, might make it their Diversion, but the Common People make it a great part of their Care and Business, hoping thereby to relieve a Necessitous Life; instead of which, they plunge themselves further into an Ocean of Difficulties. What if one Man in Ten Thousand gets Five Hundred Pounds, what Benefit is that to the rest, who have struggled hard for Fool’s Pence to make up that Sum, which, perhaps, falls to one who stood not in need of Fortune’s Favours.”
But the State Lotteries began again in Queen Anne’s reign, for an Act (8 Anne, c. 4) was passed in 1710 authorising a loan of £1,500,000 by means of a lottery of 150,000 tickets at £10 each. The money was to be sunk, and 9 per cent. was allowed on it for 32 years, and the prizes were annuities from one of £1000 to 14s. a year, which latter was given as a consolation to every holder of a blank.
Luttrell tells us how greedily they were taken up. “21st Jan. 1710. Yesterday, books were opened at Mercer’s Chapel for receiving subscriptions for the Lottery, and ‘tis said, above a Million is already subscribed; so that, ‘tis believed, ‘twill be full by Monday 7 night.” And he also tells us that “Mr Barnaby, who lately belonged to the 6 Clerk’s Office, has got the £1000 per ann. ticket in the lottery.” This lottery was drawn by blue coat boys from Christ’s Hospital, and from this time, until 1824 (except from 1814 to 1819), there was no year without a State Lottery.
There were Lotteries for everything, and to show how numerous they were take the advertisements in one paper, taken hap-hazard. The Tatler, Sep. 14/16, 1710: “Mr Stockton’s Sale of Jewels, Plate, &c., will be drawn on Michaelmas Day.—The Lottery in Colson’s Court will be drawn on the 21st inst.—The Sale of Goods to be seen at Mrs Butler’s, &c., will certainly be drawn on Tuesday, the 19th inst.—Mrs Povy’s Sale of Goods is put off to Saturday, 23rd inst.—Mrs Symond’s Sale of Goods will begin on Wednesday, the 20th of this instant.—Mrs Guthridge’s Sixpenny Sale of Goods, &c., continues to be drawn every Day.”
The prizes did not always fall to those who needed the money, as Swift writes to Stella about a son of Lord Abercorn. Aug. 29, 1711: “His second son has t’other day got a prize in the Lottery of Four Thousand Pounds, besides two small ones of two hundred pounds each; nay, the family was so fortunate, that my Lord bestowing one ticket, which is a hundred pounds, to one of his servants, who had been his page, the young fellow got a prize, which has made it another hundred.”
In 1721 private Lotteries were prescribed, by the 36th sec. of 8 Geo. I., c. 2, which imposed a penalty of £500 for carrying on such lotteries, in addition to any penalties inflicted by any former Acts; the offender being committed to prison for one year, and thenceforward until such times as the £500 should be fully paid and satisfied.