John Hancock (1737-1793) was a popular and well-known leader of the American Revolution, elected to the Boston Assembly, 1766; President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, circa 1773; Member of the Continental Congress, 1774 and elected President of the Second Continental Congress, 1775; member of Massachusetts state Constitutional Convention; and Governor of Massachusetts, through 1793.
Born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1737, he was orphaned as a child, and adopted by a wealthy merchant uncle who was childless. Hancock attended Harvard College for a business education and graduated at the age of 17. He apprenticed to his uncle as a clerk and proved so honest and capable that, in 1760, he was sent on a business mission to England. In 1763, his uncle died and John Hancock inherited what was said to be the greatest body of wealth in New England (later used by Hancock to support the Revolution). Many depended upon him for employment and he was kind and generous. He quickly gained a wide reputation for honor and integrity. Hancock soon became very involved in revolutionary politics and his sentiments were, early on and clearly, for independence from Great Britain.
He was a protégé of Samuel Adams and John Adams and other prominent leaders in the republican movement in New England, was elected to the Boston Assembly in 1766 and was a member of the Stamp Act Congress.
Samuel Adams
John Adams
In June 1768, while the British warship HMS Romney was in port in Boston, British customs officials seized Hancock’s sloop Liberty and towed it out to the Romney. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing sailors in Boston Harbor, began to riot.
Hancock was prosecuted for smuggling in two lawsuits by the British authorities, the first suit resulting in the confiscation of the Liberty in August 1768. Customs officials renamed the sloop HMS Liberty and used the ship to enforce trade regulations until it was burned by angry colonists in Rhode Island the following year. With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized second trial beginning in October 1768 by a British admiralty court. After dragging out for nearly five months, the proceedings against Hancock were dropped without explanation. As a result, supporters celebrated him as a martyr to the Patriot cause, while critics portrayed him as a scheming smuggler. Historians have been similarly divided.
Hancock began to place his energies in support of the rebels, secretly at first through the Sons of Liberty organization, then openly after the Boston Massacre in March 1770.
The day after the Boston Massacre, a committee was formed demanding that the governor remove the British troops. Hancock was named chairman of the committee and at the funeral of those killed in the massacre he delivered a blistering speech condemning the British.
Prior to the funeral address a few rebels still had doubts about Hancock's patriotism and had gossiped about his great wealth. The speech was so explicit and so patriotic that even the most dubious became convinced of what his close associates already knew -- Hancock was for real. The speech renewed his popularity. The speech also convinced the British that he was a rebel and Hancock became a marked man. For this reason, on the day of the battles of Lexington and Concord (the first day of the Revolutionary War April 19, 1775), the British were seeking to arrest Hancock and Samuel Adams.
The British attempted to arrest Hancock many times before the Declaration of Independence was signed. With the flourish of his pen above the others on that document he offered his very life for the cause. Had he been arrested after July 4, 1776, he would have been hanged.
In October 1774 Hancock had been unanimously elected president of the provincial congress of Massachusetts. The following year he was elected to the Continental Congress. Although that body included men of superior genius and greater experience than Hancock – Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson and others – none were more virtuous than Hancock and he was chosen president and continued in that capacity until bad health forced his resignation in October 1777.
Hancock served in Congress through some of the darkest days of the Revolutionary War. The British drove Washington’s Continental Army from New York and New Jersey in 1776, which prompted Congress to flee to Baltimore, Maryland. Hancock and Congress returned to Philadelphia in March 1777, but were compelled to flee six months later when the British occupied Philadelphia. Hancock wrote innumerable letters to colonial officials, raising money, supplies and troops for Washington's army. He chaired the Marine Committee, and took pride in helping to create a small fleet of American frigates, including the USS Hancock, which was named in his honor. Hancock was president of Congress when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. In John Trumbull's famous painting The Declaration of Independence, Hancock, as presiding officer, is seated on the right as the drafting committee presents their work. One other Bissell Notable Cousin, William Williams, was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the famous John Trumbull painting, Williams is shown standing on the right at the back of the room in a group of two, with a brown coat. Next to him, on the right in a red coat, is Oliver Wolcott.
Several years later, on July 9, 1778, Hancock and the other Massachusetts delegates joined the representatives from seven other states in signing the Articles of Confederation (forerunner of the Constitution), as the remaining states were not yet prepared to sign and the Articles would not be ratified until 1781.
In 1780 he was elected the first governor of Massachusetts under the new state constitution. He was re-elected governor each year through 1785 when he resigned, again for health reasons, but after a two-year recovery he was re-elected in 1787 and remained governor until his death in 1793.
In 1787, in an effort to remedy the perceived defects of the Articles of Confederation, delegates met at the Philadelphia Convention and drafted the United States Constitution, which was then sent to the states for ratification or rejection. Hancock was not in Philadelphia due to health problems but worked in Massachusetts to ratify the new Federal Constitution. Even with the support of Hancock and Adams, the Massachusetts convention narrowly ratified the Constitution by a vote of 187 to 168. Hancock's support was probably a deciding factor in the ratification.
He had not signed the Constitution, he had not been a U.S. Senator, he had not been President and he had not even been a U.S. Congressman. Yet, no Founding Father displayed greater resolution towards independence and none spent more of their personal wealth toward that effort. During the War of Revolution it was mostly Hancock's money which armed and fed the volunteers from Massachusetts. General Washington, in many of his requests to Congress for clothing, arms, and supplies, often compared his ragtag armies to the well equipped soldiers of Massachusetts Bay. One historian wrote this story of Hancock’s dedication to the cause of liberty:
"An instance of his public spirit, in 1775, is recorded, much to his praise. At that time, the American army was besieging Boston, to expel the British, who held possession of the town. To accomplish this object, the entire destruction of the city was proposed by the American officers. By the execution of such a plan, the whole fortune of Mr. Hancock would have been sacrificed. Yet he immediately acceded to the measure, declaring his readiness to surrender his all, whenever the liberties of his country should require it.
The portrait of Hancock at the top of this webpage was painted by John Singleton Copley in 1765. Material for this summary primarily from website USHistory.org, from a biography by Charles Goodman (1829) and from Wikipedia. Profile of the schooner Liberty from "God Bless Our Arms" courtesy of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum)
Joyce, Meredith, George, Gwen, Roger, Arthur, Eleanor, Chip, Carolyn, Betsy, Clyde
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Adelaide Lyon Boutelle --- Richard Meredith Bissell
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Myrtie Ella Bisbee --- Herbert Hunt Bissell
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Julie Ann Richardson --- John Hatch Bissell
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Mercy Ann Searle --- Benoni Bliss Bissell
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Tirzah Pierce --- Solomon Bissell
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John Hancock Benjamin Pierce --- Priscilla Merritt
b. 12 Jan 1735/36 Boston b. 1 Mar 1745/46 b. 26 Jun 1743
d. 8 Oct 1793 Braintree ]
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John Hancock --- Mary Hawkes Thaxter Benjamin Pierce --- Charity Howard
b. 1744 b. 13 Oct 1711 b. 4 Dec 1721 b. 25 Jul 1721
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James Hawkes --- Mary Gill Benjamin Pierce --- Mary Cowing
b. 29 Sep 1683 b. 6 Sep 1686 b. 11 Mar 1682/83 b. 28 Dec 1691
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James Hawkes --- Sarah Jacobs Benjamin Pierce --- Martha Adams
b. 27 May 1649 b. 29 Sep 1657 b. 1646 b. 1 Apr 1658
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John Jacobs --- Margery Eames Michael Pierce --- Persis Eames
b. 26 Feb 1629/30 b. Dec 1630 b. 1615 b. 28 Oct 1621
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b. 1595 b. 1599