Faneuil Hall Lottery Ticket, signed by John Hancock

Maker John Hancock (American, 1737 - 1793)

Date1765

ClassificationsHistory

DimensionsFrame: 13 3/4 x 12 1/4 x 1 in. (34.9 x 31.1 x 2.5 cm)
Ticket: 1 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. (4.4 x 8.9 cm)

DescriptionA lottery ticket to raise money for the rebuilding of Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA, signed at the bottom, "John Hancock", June 1765. The ticket is a rectangular piece of paper with frayed edges at top and proper left. The ticket has a border motif on each side and braided border at top. The text is printed in black with the ticket number (3737) handwritten in ink and signed in ink at bottom. Framed, in gold gilt frame with dark gray mat.

The ticket reads in full: "Boston, June 1765 / Faneuil-Hall LOTTERY, No. Five. The Possessor of this Ticket (No. 3737) is intitled [sic] to any Prize drawn against said Number, in a LOTTERY granted by an Act of the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay for Rebuilding FANEUIL-HALL; subject to Deduction. S. John Hancock."

In colonial times, lotteries were a highly regarded method of financing worthwhile projects--such as the rebuilding of Faneuil Hall, the famous Boston marketplace and meeting hall that had been destroyed by a fire 1761. Hancock signed this ticket in his capacity as a Boston Selectman. Faneuil Hall’s legacy is complicated. Its financier was a slave trader and it once served as a marketplace for enslaved people. It was also later known as the “cradle of liberty” for its ties to the American Revolution and the abolitionist movement where it hosted early meetings of American Patriots as they began talk of revolution.

John Hancock (1737-1793) was an American Founding Father who served as a principal figure in the American Revolution. Hancock came from a wealthy mercantile family and became a leading political figure in Boston as colonial tensions with Great Britain began to rise. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1766 and became a popular figure in his response to the Boston Tea Party (in which he did not participate).

As the American Revolutionary War began, Hancock was elected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1774 while he continued to serve as the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. He Was elected the President of the Continental Congress on May 24, 1775. Hancock was serving in this capacity when he signed the Declaration of Independence. Hancock later served as the president of the Congress of the Confederation, as the United States operated under the Articles of Confederation.

Hancock returned to Massachusetts, and after ratifying their state constitution, Hancock served as the first and third governor of the newly-formed state. Hancock was in his second term as governor when he died on October 8, 1793.