John Hancock

Biography

John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, the son of Colonel John Hancock Jr. and Mary Hawke Thaxter Hancock. The family was financially comfortable though not wealthy. When John was only seven years old, his father died, and he was sent to live with his childless uncle and aunt, Thomas and Lydia Hancock. Thomas was a highly successful merchant who made his money importing British goods and exporting New England’s rum, whale oil and fish. This thriving business made him one of the richest Bostonians. Thomas saw to it that his young ward was well educated and, when John graduated from Harvard in 1754, he was taken into the business by his uncle.

John Hancock found the life of a wealthy man very appealing. And he was soon to become one. In August of 1764, Thomas Hancock died and, having no children of his own, he left John his business, his elegant manor house, two or three enslaved people, and thousands of acres of land. Overnight, John Hancock became one of the wealthiest men in colonial America.

His newfound wealth opened the door to political office. Just as tensions were developing between Mother Country and his home colony of Massachusetts, Hancock was elected one of Boston’s five selectmen. He, like many Bostonians, resented the newly imposed Stamp Act and joined the boycott of British goods designed to pressure Parliament into repealing the stamp tax. His stance made him a popular figure in Boston, and he was rewarded with a seat in the colony’s assembly when the Act was repealed in 1766.

Hancock’s rise to political prominence was aided by support from Boston’s leading radical, Samuel Adams. The two men shared little in common except their opposition to Britain’s new policies. Adams, who was 15 years older than Hancock, was neither rich nor inclined to luxury; compared to the extravagance of Hancock, Adams seemed austere and puritanical. Nevertheless, the two men bonded.

In 1768, the British Customs Service targeted Hancock who, in fact, was well known to be a smuggler of foreign goods. Customs officers seized Hancock’s ship, the Liberty and charged him and five other importers with avoiding payment of duties on imported wine. Bostonians protested and ultimately the charges were dropped. But it is no surprise that, from then on, Hancock’s opposition to British rule grew. Still, he walked a fine line when it came to events like the Boston Tea Party; although he privately approved of it, he refused to openly support the destruction of private property.

On December 1, 1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts elected John Hancock as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. At almost the same time, it re-elected him president of their Provincial Congress. On May 24, 1775, the Continental Congress also chose Hancock to preside over their sessions. His commitment to independence was obvious by this time. At a 1774 commemoration of the alleged Boston Massacre he had declared ”Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to a government founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publicly avowing my eternal enmity to tyranny.”

During a break in the sessions of the Continental Congress, Hancock married Dorothy Quincy. This marriage reflected the complexity of the relationships within Boston’s small and tightly knit social elite. Dorothy was the sister of Esther Quincy Sewall who had married Jonathan Sewall, the colony’s leading Loyalist propagandist in 1764. Thus, two of the most vocal men on opposing political sides were now brothers-in-law.

As President of the Continental Congress, Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. His signature, large and bold, dwarfed the signatures of his congressional colleagues. When, in October of 1777, Hancock requested a leave of absence from his duties, George Washington arranged a military escort for him as he returned to Boston. Hancock was not greeted warmly by Samuel Adams who now thought Hancock’s self-importance and penchant for luxury were unbecoming of a republican leader.

Yet Hancock’s popularity survived. He sustained the goodwill of the local population through his philanthropy and in 1780, Massachusetts elected him in a landslide vote as the first Governor of the state. He was re-elected many times for the remainder of his life.

John Hancock did not attend the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787. When the Constitution was presented for ratification, he was uncomfortable with its lack of a bill of rights, and he did not favor the shift of power away from state governments [and governors] that the Constitution would require. Although he was elected to preside over Masssachusetts’ ratifying convention, he remained silent during its intense debates. In the end however he broke his silence and gave a speech in favor of ratification.

By the 1790s, John Hancock’s health was failing and on October 8, 1793, he died at the age of 56. His funeral fit his lifelong love of luxury and extravagance, for it was the most lavish and grandest of that era.