Handwritten list of Gassy Jack’s debts to be sold in All Nations’ 1200th Auction
John Mackie has featured our 1200th auction in an article for the Vancouver Sun here: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/handwritten-list-of-gassy-jacks-debts-to-be-sold
Gassy Jack Deighton
Listing of Gassy Jack’s debts when he died in 1875. ARLEN REDEKOP / PNG
Gassy Jack Deighton Debts estate document, ex Wellburn
Lot 145 in our 1200th Auction 9th March 2019
“Gassy Jack Deighton was apparently quite a storyteller. But he doesn’t seem to have been much of a businessman.
When he died on May 23, 1875, the founder of Gastown left behind almost $5,000 in debt, the equivalent of about $115,000 today.
A guy named John Brown was owed $4, Capt. John Irving of New Westminster was owed $500, and Deighton’s brother Thomas was owed $1,800.
How do we know? Because a handwritten list of Gassy Jack’s debts from 1875 is being sold this Saturday at an All Nations Stamp and Coin online auction.
The pre-auction estimate is $500, but that is probably quite conservative — a March, 1875 letterGassy Jack sent to Capt. Irving sold for $44,000 in 2016.”
