as though he came in 1631. The letter from Thomas Eyre to Ambrose Gibbins, dated at London, the last of May, 1631, shows that Roger Knight was in New England before April 8, 1630, and that Capt. Walter Neal was here before the end of March, 1631. (N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. I., p. 61). Ambrose Gibbins arrived at Piscataqua in 1630 and was living at Newichawanick, July 13, 1633.

Now, it is evident that the Adams list upon which James Savage and many more recently have foundered, contains some names of persons that were here before 1631, and other names of persons who did not arrive in New England until after the death of Capt. John Mason in the winter of 1636.

The earliest original paper giving the name of William Berry is found in the glebe land deed recorded at Portsmouth, and signed by him and nineteen others, on May 25, 1640. In that he was described as an "Inhabitant of the Lower end of Piscataquack." (New Hampshire Genealogical Record, Vol. I., p. 3). He appears as a signer to a grant at Strawberry Bank, Aug. 15, 1646; as living at "Sandie Beach" (Rye), Aug. 13, 1649; and as a grantee of an "out lot " at Portsmouth, Jan. 13, 1652. His widow, Jane Berry, was appointed administratrix of his estate, June 28, 1654.

I find, however, that William Berry was admitted a freeman of Massachusetts Bay Colony, May 18, 1642, and that he became one of the freeholders of Newbury, Mass., Dec. 7, 1642. (Mass. Bay Colony Records, Vol. II., p. 291, and Currier's History of Newbury, p. 84).

On April 19, 1649, Job Clements was granted in Newbury "that freehold that the Towne bought formerly being William Berry his freehold," and on March 1, 1651, that "William Chandler hath William Berries [land]."

According to the Aspinwall Notarial Records, one William Berry, a gentleman, of Boston, gave a bond Oct. 9, 1647, to pay £20 within two months after his arrival in England (Pope's Pioneers of Massachusetts, p. 47), and he or another of the same name was granted £22. 15s. June 12, 1648, in the case against Robert Risly (Aspinwall Papers, p. 210).

That these were all one and the same William Berry, may be a matter of doubt, but that there was one William Berry living at Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth) from 1640 to 1654 is evident. Thousands of his descendants are living, of whom the writer claims to be one.

WEYMOUTH, MASS.

GEO. W. CHAMBERLAIN.

Α *

THE HISTORY OF LOTTERIES IN NEW YORK

I

THE EUROPEAN FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN LOTTERIES

KIND of public game at hazard, in order to raise money for the service of the state. A lottery consists of several numbers of blanks and prizes, which are drawn out of wheels, one of which contains the numbers of the tickets, and the other the corresponding blanks and prizes." The definition given above is taken from "The Historical Dictionary," compiled by Ezra Sampson in 1812. It has the merit of describing the term "lottery" as it was understood at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when lotteries were a legal institution. The study of lotteries which we are concerned with here relates to the history of lotteries in New York from 1721 to 1833. During this period lotteries were operated by the government of the colony and the State of New York as a means of raising revenue.

Lotteries are far from being a modern institution. They were used extensively in Greece and Rome. From Rome they were handed down to Italy. Different European countries adopted the lottery from Italy as a means of raising money for public purposes. Among the countries which made greatest use of public lotteries was France, especially in the time of Louis XIV. The French Revolution put an end to lotteries temporarily. They were revived, however, by the Republic, and were employed to raise money for public purposes at various times, until they were permanently discontinued in 1836.

The development of English Lotteries 2 is of particular importance to us, for American colonial lotteries were an immediate outgrowth of English lotteries. The first English lottery, it seems, was projected ir 1569 for the purpose of raising means with which to repair harbors anc

1 The best account of the development of French lotteries is the following: "Etud e Historique sur les Loteries, M. l'Abbé J. Corblett." Revue de l'Art Chrétien, 1861, pp. 11-12.8. 2 The best account of English lotteries is "A History of English Lotteries," by Jolin Ashton, London, 1893.

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3

provide for other public works. A lottery was authorized in 1612 for the benefit of the Virginia Company" for the present plantation of English Colonies in America." In 1660 a lottery was opened to raise money to ransom English slaves in Tunis, Algiers, and in Turkish galleys elsewhere. After the death of Prince Rupert in 1682 his jewels were disposed of by lottery. In 1694 the government authorized a lottery of £100,000 with shares at £10 each, to provide for a loan to that amount. The war with France at the time produced unusual expenses. To avoid the unpopularity which would come from levying a general tax, William III resorted to the expedient of raising the money by lottery. Three years later another loan of £1,400,000 in the same manner.8 In 1699, because of the evils attendant upon the drawing of lotteries, all lotteries were suppressed." In 1710, however, they were resumed, and year after year they continued to bring a considerable revenue to the state. 10 In 1719 a vigorous prosecution against lotteries organized under private management was begun. Private lotteries, as they were called, were considered to be particularly pernicious, since they were not under restrictions or supervision of government officers.11

The famous State Lottery of 1739 was authorized for building a bridge over the Thames River. From the funds raised in this manner Westminster Bridge was built. 12 From 1743 to 1748 lotteries varying in amount from £1,000,000 to £6,300,000 were held with shares uniformly at £10 each.13

Although the lottery was a state institution for raising money, there were those at the close of the eighteenth century who condemned it bitterly on moral grounds. Adam Smith declared the world never had seen and never would see a fair lottery. Fraud in the manner of conducting lotteries was proved in many cases. One One" Patch" Price, who was convicted of fraudulent practices in connection with the drawing of a lottery, hanged himself in his cell to escape the shame of public execution.1 In England and in America the punishment for many of the offences in connection with lotteries was, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, death.

The mania for lotteries finally passed into the trades. There were lottery tailors, glovers, tea merchants, bakers, barbers. For example, a man being shaved for sixpence might stand a chance of getting £10; or a man calling for sixpenny worth of beef in an eating house might receive a note with a number which, if it turned out fortunate, would entitle the holder to sixty guineas.15

In 1753 a lottery was held which was responsible for the founding of the British Museum. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker of the House were appointed as managers and trustees to raise by lottery a sum sufficient to erect a building for the housing of the Harleian and other libraries which had been purchased to establish a public library.16

It is worthy of note that the government rarely received the whole amount of the lottery authorized. The state lottery of 1811 for the amount of £600,000 brought to the government a net sum of £208,007.17 The difference in the amounts was due to the cost of management and to the fact that usually only a part of the tickets were sold. The state lottery of 1819 brought in a net sum of £213,324.18

After 1819 there are few lotteries to record in English history. Opposition to them became widespread. In that year Mr. Lyttleton introduced the following resolution in the House of Commons:

"(1) That by the establishment of state lotteries, a spirit of gambling, injurious in the highest degree to the morals of the people is encouraged and provoked,

(2) That since a habit, manifestly weakening the habits of industry, must diminish the permanent sources of the public revenue,

"(3) That the said lotteries have given rise to other systems of gambling, which have been but partially repressed by laws, whose provisions are extremely arbitrary, and their enforcement liable to the greatest abuses,

(4) That this House, therefore, will no longer authorize the erection of state lotteries under any system of regulation whatever." 19

The last lottery in England was held in 1826. Public interest in lotteries had declined to such a degree that the drawing of the lottery had

to be postponed several times because the tickets could not be sold. Every effort was put forth to arouse excitement in favor of the lottery, but the people were apathetic even if it was the last lottery to be held.20

One of the worst evils connected with the English lotteries was the insuring of lottery tickets.21 So pernicious had the practice become that a statute (33 George III, c. 62) was passed authorizing officers of the law to break open doors and apprehend offenders who violated the law respecting the insurance of tickets. We shall have occasion to consider the subject of insurance of tickets more in detail in taking up the history of the practice in New York. In brief, insuring of tickets was simply a form of betting. In return for a small sum a larger one was promised provided a certain number turned up in the drawing of a lottery. The "other systems of gambling" mentioned by Mr. Lyttleton in his resolution referred to the practice of insuring tickets.

II

E

THE BEGINNING OF LOTTERIES IN AMERICA

NGLISH lotteries furnished the example for the American colonial lotteries. Many of the colonists must have been familiar with the working of the English lotteries from actual observation. The tickets of the English state lotteries, in fact, were sold to some extent in the colonies. It is not surprising, therefore, that the colonial statutes which were passed to authorize lotteries were copied from English statutes. A little work published in London in 1771 entitled "The Lottery Displayed," contains an account of the manner of drawing a lottery at that time. The regulations for drawing colonial lotteries at the same time were stated in precisely the same terms as the plan set forth in the little treatise referred to. The same evils in the same form, in fact, grew up in the colonial lotteries as in the English lotteries.

Lotteries came into the colonies when the people were poor and when taxes bore heavily upon them. They were used as a means for raising money for public purposes of various kinds, such as the founding of schools, the construction of roads, the building of bridges, court houses, jails, public buildings for the sick and the poor, for establishing foundries, glass works, for digging canals, etc.