"Scheme of a Lottery"
"Scheme of a Lottery" is an advertisement for a lottery for the sale of parcels of land which appeared in various versions in the Virginia Gazette between April 25, 1766 and April 6, 1769.[1] George Wythe was one of the five attorneys managing the lottery, along with Jerman Baker, Thomas Everard, Robert Carter Nicholas, and John Thompson. Numbers were drawn at Anthony Hay's in Williamsburg on May 8, 1769, and the results were reported in the Gazette on May 11, 1769.[2]
Article text, 25 April 1766
Page 3
SCHEME of a LOTTERY
for disposing of 146 lots of LAND, in the town of Hanover, yet remaining unsold.—The least valuable of the lots, according to the prices of those most remote from the water, which have been sold, not being less than 20l. which is far below a medium between that sum and what was given for several near the water, the unsold lots are rated at 30l. each, accounting 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, on which Page's warehouses stand, one lot, and 24, 35, 36, 47, 48, 49, on which Crutchfield's warehouses stand, one other lot only, so that there will be but 235 lots in the whole to be drawn for; and it is proposed that there shall be no more than that number of chances, and consequently no blanks. The consideration money will not be required of Gentlemen willing to become adventurers, and subscribing to the scheme, until next; when it is to be paid to the proprietor, at Williamsburg, The drawing will be soon after the subscription shall be completed, of which notice shall be published in the Virginia Gazette. Robert Carter Nicholas, George Wythe, Thomas Everard, John Thompson, and Jerman Baker, Esquires, will be managers of the lottery, so any three of them.
MANN PAGE.
