HANCOCK, JOHN, 1737-93; b. Mass., graduated at Harvard, and went into com mercial business with an uncle who (in 1764) left him a fortune. In 1766 he was a member of the colonial legislature. Two years afterwards a sloop owned by him, bear ing the offensive name of Liberty, was seized by the crown officers, and the event created a riot in which the officers were roughly treated. After the Boston massacre Hancock was one of a committee to wait upon the governor and demand that the troops should be taken away from the city. Over the remains of the victims of the massacre he made an oration of great eloquence and greater boldness, which gave serious offense to the royal government, and led to an effort to seize the persons of Hancock and Samuel Adams, an effort which was the cause of the conflict at Concord. The provincial con gress met at Concord in March, 1875, and both Adams and Hancock were members, the latter being president. The congress adjourned April 15, and on the night of the 18th
men from Boston marched to Concord, arriving at 7.5 A.M. ou the 19th. A conflict fol lowed, and ended in the battle of Lexington,*and the beginning of the revolution. Han cock and Adams escaped, but both were by name exempted from the pardon promised by governor Gage. Hancock was president of the continental congress, and his name in a bold hand stands first among the signers of the declaration of independence, to which it was appended a month before the other signatures. He was in the Massachu setts constitutional convention, and the first governor of the new state, being (with ti single interval) re-elected every year until his death. Much of his large fortune was. spent for benevolent and useful purposes, Harvard college coming in for a share.