… eighteenth-century clubs met in taverns to indulge in betting and drinking. For example, the ‘Board of Brothers’, afterwards the ‘Board of Loyal Brotherhood’, was a Tory-Jacobite drinking club founded in 1709 by Henry Somerset, 2 nd Duke … in betting books: March 21 st 1755. Ld. Sussex bets Mr. Chas. Boone ten guineas, that there is no Declaration of War before this day twelve months between England and France. (Bourke 34) Feb. 4 1783. Lord Derby bets Genl. Smith 10 … 6, p. 461. Times of political intrigue, such as elections, caused a spike in the volume of bets, as did periods of great war.For instance, the American war of Independence was the object of multiple bets. 11 The same diversity of bets can …