The History Of Gambling In England - free ebook by John Ashton

THE HISTORY OF GAMBLING IN ENGLAND

All Rights Reserved The HISTORY of GAMBLING in ENGLAND BY JOHN ASHTON author of “Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne,” “A History of English Lotteries,” etc. LONDON DUCKWORTH &amp; CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1898...

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INTRODUCTORY

Difference between Gaming and Gambling—Universality and Antiquity of Gambling—Isis and Osiris—Games and Dice of the Egyptians—China and India—The Jews—Among the Greeks and Romans—Among Mahometans—Early Dicing—Dicing in England in the 13th and 14th Centuries—In the 17th Century—Celebrated Gamblers—Bourchier—Swiss Anecdote—Dicing in the 18th Century. Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen , meaning joy , pleasure , sports , or gaming —and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736

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“The Perpetual Almanack, or Soldier’s Prayer Book.

giving an Account of Richard Lane, a Private belonging to the 47th Regiment of Foot, who was taken before the Mayor of the Town for Playing at Cards during Divine Service. The Sergeant commanded the Soldiers at Church, and when the Parson had read the prayers, he took his text. Those who had a Bible, took it out, but the Soldier had neither Bible nor Common Prayer Book, but, pulling out a Pack of Cards he spread them before him. He, first, looked at one card, and then at another: the Sergeant of

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CHAPTER II

Legislation as to Cards—Boy and sheep—Names of old games at Cards—Gambling temp. Charles II.—Description of a gaming-house, 1669—Play at Christmas—The Groom Porter—Royal gambling discontinued by George III.—Gambling in church. Legislation about Cards was thought necessary in Henry VIII.’s time, for we see in 33 Hen. VIII., cap. 9, sec. xvi.: “Be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid. That no manner of artificer, or craftsman of any handicraft or occupation, husbandman, apprentice, labourer,

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CHAPTER III

Gambling, early 18th Century—Mrs Centlivre—E. Ward—Steele—Pope—Details of a gaming-house—Grub St. Journal on Gambling—Legislation on gambling—Peeresses as gaming-house keepers—A child played for at cards—Raids on gaming-houses—Fielding. But to return to the Chronology of Gambling. From the Restoration of Charles II. to the time of Anne, gambling was common; but in the reign of this latter monarch, it either reached a much higher pitch, or else, in that Augustan Age of Literature, we hear more ab

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CHAPTER IV

“When the late Earl of T—— d was a youth, he was passionately fond of play, and never better pleased than with having Mr Nash for his antagonist. Nash saw, with concern, his lordship’s foible, and undertook to cure him, though by a very disagreeable remedy. Conscious of his own superior skill, he determined to engage him in single play for a very considerable sum. His lordship, in proportion as he lost his game, lost his temper, too; and, as he approached the gulph, seemed still more eager for r

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CHAPTER V

The Gambling ladies—Ladies Archer, Buckinghamshire, Mrs Concannon, &amp;c.—Private Faro Banks—Card-money—Gaming House end of Eighteenth Century—Anecdotes—The profits of Gaming Houses—C. J. Fox and Sir John Lade—Col. Hanger on gambling. We have previously read how ladies of position kept gambling houses, and pleaded their privilege to do so; they, however, had to bow to the law. In the latter part of the eighteenth century many ladies opened their houses, the best known, probably, being Lady

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CHAPTER VI

“41. That every person playing at the twenty guinea table do not keep less than twenty guineas before him.” Here is an extract from the Club books which shows the style of play. “Mr Thynne having won only 12,000 guineas during the last two months, retired in disgust. March 21, 1772.” The Club subsequently became Goosetree’s, and after him was taken by a wine merchant and money lender named Brookes, and Brookes’s it is to this day, at 60 St James Street, to which locality it moved from Pall Mall

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CHAPTER VII

Hanging, the penalty for losing—Suicide—Officer cashiered—Reminiscences of an exiled gambler—Description of the principal gaming-houses at the West End in 1817. The Annual Register about this time supplies us with several gambling anecdotes, the following being almost incredible:— 15th April 1812. —“On Wednesday evening an extraordinary investigation took place at Bow Street. Croker, the officer, was passing along the Hampstead road, when he observed, at a short distance before him, two men on a

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CHAPTER VIII

The prosecutor was a person known as Baron d’A——, who formerly held a commission in the German Legion. This gentleman had been desperate, and, of course, unfortunate in his speculation at rouge et noir ; and, at last, lost not only his pay, but the proceeds of the sale of his commission. Thus reduced, he became equally desperate in determination, and occasionally made demands and levied contributions from the parties who had won from him, but, compliance with such demands becoming less frequent

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CHAPTER IX

Hells in the Quadrant, 1833—Smith v. Bond—Police powers—“Confessions of a Croupier.” The West End of London literally swarmed with gambling houses, for the most part of a very different description from Crockford’s, as may be seen by the two following quotations from The Times , Jan. 24, 1833:— “ The Hells in the Quadrant. “Those seats of vice (the gaming-houses) which for some time past have existed in the Quadrant, appear to be done up, as, since Saturday, not one of them has been opened. Sinc

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CHAPTER X

Here, then, ends the account of this phase of gambling, as it has been thought inexpedient to give any modern instances of play at so-called Clubs, or Card-sharping....

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CHAPTER XI

Wagers and Betting—Samson—Greek and Roman betting—In the 17th Century—“Lusty Packington”—The rise of betting in the 18th Century—Walpole’s story of White’s—Betting in the House of Commons—Story by Voltaire—Anecdotes of betting—Law suit concerning the Chevalier d’Eon. Betting, or rather, that peculiar form of wager which consists in a material pledge in corroboration of controverted assertions, is of very ancient date, and we meet with it in one of the early books of the Bible, see Judges xiv. wh

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CHAPTER XII

Gluttonous Wager—Walk to Constantinople and back—Sir John Lade and Lord Cholmondeley—Other Wagers—Betting on Napoleon—Bet on a Coat—Lord Brougham—Brunel and Stephenson—Captain Barclay—Story by Mr Ross—The Earl of March’s Coach—Selby’s drive to Brighton—White’s betting book. A different kind of wager is recorded in The World , of 4th May 1787. “At the Wheel, at Hackington Fen, on Wednesday sen’night, a fen farmer laid a wager he could eat two dozen of penny mutton pies, and drink a gallon of ale

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CHAPTER XIII

Edward III. bought some running horses at £13, 6s. 8d. each; and in the ninth year of his reign the King of Navarre made him a present of two running horses. Still, very little is heard of race horses until the time of Elizabeth and James I. Bishop Hall, of Exeter and Norwich, in one of his Satires, writes: “Dost thou prize Thy brute beasts’ worth by their dam’s qualities? Say’st thou, this colt shall prove a swift-paced steed, Only because a jennet did him breed? Or say’st thou, this same horse

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CHAPTER XIV

Match between Mrs Thornton and Mr Flint—Its sequel—Daniel Dawson poisons horses—Origin of Bookmaking—Turf frauds—The “Ludlow” scandal—The “Plenipo” fraud—Reports of Select Committee on Gaming, 1844. The singular contest which took place between Mrs Thornton [51] and Mr Flint in 1804 was the talk of its time. An intimacy existed between the families of Col. Thornton and Mr Flint, the two ladies being sisters. In the course of one of their rides in Thornville Park, the lady of Colonel Thornton and

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CHAPTER XV

The booths at Ascot Heath, and the taverns in Windsor, were, at race time, great haunts for the keepers of the E.O. tables, some of whom were respectable men in their calling, and might be trusted to give twenty, or even more, shillings for a guinea; but the majority, gambling for twopenny pieces and sixpences, were little, if anything, better than the thimble-rig and prick-the-garter gentry of that, or the three-card practitioners of our own, time. Ascot, indeed, was, then, a race meeting of th

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CHAPTER XVI

Betting Houses—Their suppression in 1853—Bookmakers and their Clients—Defaulters—Dwyer’s swindle—Value of Stakes. In Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal of 24th July 1852, is an excellent article on “ Betting Houses .” It says: “‘Betting Shop’ is vulgar, and we dislike vulgarity. ‘Commission Office,’ ‘Racing Bank,’ ‘Mr Hopposite Green’s Office,’ ‘Betting Office,’ are the styles of announcement adopted by speculators, who open, what low people call, Betting Shops. The chosen designation is, usually, pain

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CHAPTER XVII

The Lottery—Its etymology and origin—The first in England—Succeeding ones—Prince Rupert’s jewels—Penny Lottery. Suppression and revival—Rage for them in Queen Anne’s reign—Lotteries for public purposes—Leheup’s fraud. I have written very fully on the Lottery in England, [53] but, in this History of Gambling in this country, it is necessary to go over the ground again, though, of course, at much less length. Some claim that the Romans introduced the lottery, in their Apophoreta , but these were s

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CHAPTER XVIII

“The prisoner acknowledged he insured the ticket 79 times for one day. The mother of the person who was not apprehended, was next examined; she proved an acquaintance between her son and the prisoner; but denied any remembrance of ever hearing the latter mention anything relating to insurance. The prisoner was discharged. “It is said that the person who absconded, got about £400 by the above fraud; and would have got £3000, had he been paid in all the offices where he insured.” But, that such a

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CHAPTER XIX

Promoters and Projectors—Government loans—Commencement of Bank of England—Character of a Stock Jobber—Jonathan’s—Hoax temp. Anne—South Sea Bubble—Poems thereon. We are apt to think that company promoters and commercial speculation are things of modern growth, but Projectors and Patentees (company promoters and monopolists) were common in the early seventeenth century; and we find an excellent exposition of their ways and commodities in a poetical broadside by John Taylor, the Water poet, publish

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CHAPTER XX

First mention of the Stock Exchange—Attempt at hoax—Daniel’s fraud—Berenger’s fraud—Bubbles of 1825—The Railway Mania—30th Nov. 1845 at the Board of Trade—The fever at its height—The Marquis of Clanricarde pricks the bubble. In 1734 an Act was passed (7 Geo. II., c. 8) entitled “An Act to prevent the infamous practice of Stock jobbing,” which provided that no loss in bargains for time should be recoverable in the Courts, and placed such speculations outside the Law altogether. It was a dead lett

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A LUCKY SPECULATOR.

Considerable sensation has been excited in the upper and lower circles in the West End, by a startling piece of good fortune which has befallen James Plush , Esq., lately footman in a respected family in Berkeley Square. One day, last week, Mr James waited upon his master, who is a banker in the city; and, after a little blushing and hesitation, said he had saved a little money in service, and was anxious to retire, and to invest his savings to advantage. His master (we believe we may mention, w

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JEAMES OF BUCKLEY SQUARE.

A Heligy. Come, all ye gents vot cleans the plate, Come, all ye ladies maids so fair— Vile I a story vil relate Of cruel Jeames of Buckley Square. A tighter lad, it is confest, Never valked vith powder in his air, Or vore a nosegay in his breast, Than andsum Jeames of Buckley Square. O Evns! it vas the best of sights, Behind his Master’s coach and pair, To see our Jeames in red plush tights, A driving hoff from Buckley Square. He vel became his hagwiletts, He cocked his at with such an hair; His

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CHAPTER XXII

Permissible gambling—Early Marine Assurance—Oldest and old Policies—Lloyd’s—Curious Insurances—Marine Assurance Companies—Fire Insurance—Its origin and early Companies—Life Insurance—Early Companies—Curious story of Life Insurance. But, paradoxical as it may appear, there is a class of gambling which is not only considered harmless, but beneficial, and even necessary—I mean Insurance. Theoretically, it is gambling proper. You bet 2s. 6d. to £100 with your Fire Insurance; you equally bet on a Mar

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