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Scarce lottery ticket crisply signed at the conclusion in ink, "John Hancock," one page, 3.25 x 1.75, for the "Faneuil-Hall Lottery" held in Boston in June 1765. In full: "The Possessor of this Ticket (No. 4171) is intitled to any Prize drawn against said Number, in a Lottery granted by an Act of the General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, for Rebuilding Faneuil-Hall; subject to Deduction." Signed neatly on the reverse by the bearer of the ticket, Edward Proctor, a prominent Boston patriot and future Boston Tea Party participant. In fine condition.
In colonial America, lotteries were a widely accepted means of financing public improvements. Boston turned to this method after Faneuil Hall, the city's landmark marketplace and meeting hall, was destroyed by fire in January 1761, issuing lottery tickets signed by John Hancock in his capacity as one of Boston's five selectmen to help fund its reconstruction. Similar ventures were undertaken elsewhere, including George Washington and Captain Thomas Bullitt's proposed Mountain Road Lottery of 1767, which sought to finance a road through the Allegheny Mountains and a resort at present-day Hot Springs, Virginia, though that lottery ultimately failed and the projects were completed by other means. While large numbers of lottery tickets were issued during the colonial period, surviving examples signed by prominent Revolutionary figures such as Hancock are today exceedingly scarce.
Edward Proctor (1733–1811) was a prominent Boston merchant and patriot who helped lead resistance to the Tea Act. As a member of the North End Caucus, he served on the committee charged with securing the resignation of the East India Company's tea consignees, and on the night of December 16, 1773, commanded the volunteer boarding party aboard the Dartmouth, participating in the destruction of the tea. His civic and fraternal involvement in Boston was extensive: he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1756, later served on the committees of correspondence and safety in the years leading up to the Revolution, and, during the Revolutionary War, attained the rank of colonel in the Massachusetts militia. A Freemason and member of St. Andrew's Lodge, he rose to Junior Grand Warden of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, while also serving the city as a fireward and Overseer of the Poor. He died in Boston in November 1811 at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in Copp's Hill Burying Ground.
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