John Hancock

John Hancock

American Revolutionary leader, who, as President of the Continental Congress, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. He did so with such a flourish that his name became a synonym for the word “signature.” Born Jan. 23, 1737, d. Oct. 8, 1793, Hancock was an American Revolutionary statesman. Born in Braintree (now Quincy), Mass., the son of a clergyman, he was educated at Harvard and trained for business in London. He was brought up by his uncle, Thomas Hancock, a wealthy Boston merchant, who adopted him on his father's death. To this uncle, John owed his rapid rise in business and public affairs.

After graduating from Harvard in 1754, he joined his uncle's firm, and ten years later he took over its management, becoming the wealthiest merchant in New England. He joined the protest against the Stamp Act and other British regulatory measures. Hancock won the esteem of Massachusetts patriots when the British customs collectors in Boston launched what amounted to a vendetta against him. The commissioners sought to trap him into a technical disobedience of the port provisions of the Sugar Act of 1764, but Hancock stood his ground, and the charges were dropped. In the interim, however, a mob had temporarily routed the commissioners from the city — an act that led to the stationing of British troops there and then to the Boston Massacre.

In 1768, when customs agents seized his sloop Liberty, popular sympathy led to public demonstrations in his behalf; he was defended by John Adams, and the charges were finally dropped.

Groomed by Samuel Adams, who saw the value of affiliating a prominent merchant with the cause of independence, Hancock emerged as a leading figure in the revolutionary movement and in 1774 was chosen president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. The following year he became the leader of the Boston patriot committee and an ally of Adams. The inflammatory oratory of Hancock and Adams brought them to the attention of British officials in 1775. Warned by Paul Revere, they fled Lexington just as the battles of Lexington and Concord opened the Revolutionary War.

Elected to the Second Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence, and was chosen president of Congress. He resigned in 1777 in disappointment over the failure of Congress to make him commander in chief of the Continental Army, (actually he performed poorly later in commanding the state militia).but he continued to be active in Massachusetts politics, serving as governor for nine terms between 1780 and 1793. Unwilling to face the disturbances that resulted in Shay's Rebellion, he resigned from the governorship in 1785 and returned to office only when the uprising had been suppressed.

At first critical of the federal Constitution, Hancock was won over to support ratification by the promise of nomination for the presidency should George Washington decline. Though seemingly in the vanguard of the revolutionaries, he was not considered an independent figure but a tool of Samuel Adams, who played on Hancock's ambition, vanity, and inordinate love of popularity.

Although he remained in Congress for three years after relinquishing the presidency in 1777, Hancock devoted much of his energy to Massachusetts affairs. His great popularity in the state is attested by his long hold on the governorship—most of the period from 1780 until his death in Quincy, Mass., on Oct. 8, 1793.

He also presided over the Massachusetts convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788, and his support for the document appears to have been crucial.

Hancock was a vain, flamboyant man, who lived in princely splendor on Boston's Beacon Hill. Nonetheless, he was a devoted patriot. He risked his fortune in the struggle for independence and performed valuable services for his country. John Adams referred to him as an “essential character” of the American Revolution.

(See Bibliography Below)

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Authors: Harry Ammon; Don Higginbotham (contributing) - Permission given by the author.
Picture Credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (top).
Bibliography: Allan, Herbert S., John Hancock (1948); Baxter, William T., House of Hancock: Business in Boston, 1724-1775 (1945; repr. 1965); Sears, Lorenzo, John Hancock: The Picturesque Patriot, ed. by George Billias (1912; repr. 1972).