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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;scottishmoney, post: 1211783, member: 12789&quot;]<b>Lottery Ticket 1758, Signed by William Pepperell</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Maine was not one of the original thirteen colonies, in fact,&nbsp; until 1820 Maine was the northern part of the State of Massachusetts.&nbsp;&nbsp; Some of the earliest colonial settlements in North America were actually&nbsp; in Maine, the Popham Colony was founded in 1607 by the Plymouth company&nbsp; but would fail with the colonists returning to England in 1608.&nbsp; In&nbsp; contrast to the colonial settlement in Jamestown Virginia in 1607, there&nbsp; was only one recorded death of a colonist.&nbsp; In 1652 Maine was created&nbsp; as a province of the Massachusetts-Bay colony and was finally settled&nbsp; permanently.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://scottishmoney.net/banknotes/usa/colonials/mainelotteryticket1758.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>This authorisation was passed by the general court of&nbsp; Massachusetts-Bay in January 1758 with the prize being decided in&nbsp; November 1760.&nbsp; I find it fascinating that lotteries were not only&nbsp; tolerated, but they thrived during this time, with religious fervor&nbsp; predicating all other forms of gambling.&nbsp; One could imagine that given&nbsp; that it was for the public good that lotteries were permitted during the&nbsp; time. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Lottery tickets from this era were at one time really not&nbsp; researched well, and collectors were few.&nbsp; Mercifully for myself I&nbsp; purchased this when I was a sprite with a determination to expend my&nbsp; extra dosh on sundry numismatic treasures rather than Pac-Man and music&nbsp; etc.&nbsp; I was always fascinated with the signers of paper money and&nbsp; lottery tickets, this particular lottery ticket being no small&nbsp; exception.&nbsp; For indeed, it was signed by William Pepperell (1696-1759), a&nbsp; notable from Maine history and even colonial American history. William&nbsp; Pepperell was a commander of the militia early in his career and would&nbsp; thence become Chief Justice of Massachusetts-Bay in 1730.&nbsp; He became the&nbsp; first native born American to become a Baronet in 1746, and was&nbsp; received by George II in 1749.&nbsp; He earned this distinguished honour in&nbsp; his military exploits during &quot;King George&#039;s War&quot; of 1744-48 where he&nbsp; commanded troops that besieged Ft. Louisbourg in French Canada and&nbsp; forced the French to surrender.&nbsp;&nbsp; During the French and Indian War he&nbsp; became a major general and for a short time governor of&nbsp; Massachusetts-Bay.&nbsp; He must have signed this ticket in 1758, as he took&nbsp; seriously ill in early 1759 and would die mid the following summer.&nbsp; His&nbsp; home in Kittery was built in 1682 and still stands and is entered in&nbsp; the National Historic Register. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Whilst it would appear unduly economical to us in the&nbsp; 21st century, paper was quite dearly expensive during the 18th century -&nbsp; for that reason the lottery tickets were printed on the unprinted side&nbsp; of an older document, notice the signature of Rishworth Jordan on the&nbsp; reverse of the ticket.&nbsp; He was a prominent jurist from Winter Harbour in&nbsp; what is now Maine.&nbsp; During the American revolution he was appointed&nbsp; Chief Justice in the Massachusetts-Bay colony.&nbsp; He lived a very long&nbsp; life for the time, having been born in 1719, he would live until 1808.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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