On July 4, 1776, 56 men signed their names on a revolutionary document fully aware they were incurring the wrath of the strongest country in the world. One man signed his name first and largest, leading to a saying in the new country: “Put your John Hancock right here on the line.” Hancock, arguably the richest man in New England, took this brave step knowing it made him a marked man in the eyes of the British.
As a child, Hancock’s future seemed conventional. His father was a minister and Harvard graduate. But at the age of 7, Hancock was orphaned. A childless uncle, Thomas Hancock, adopted John, which changed the course of his life. Thomas was the most successful and enterprising merchant in New England; he had founded a professorship at then-Harvard College and sent his adopted son there. Although he was an average scholar, John Hancock graduated in 1754 at the age of 17 and went to work for Thomas. He began as a lowly clerk but his work ethic and honesty soon gained him a job as the firm’s liaison with Britain. The young man lived in London for a year (1760) as the firm’s representative there. At the age of 26, John was made a partner in the thriving business, and when Thomas died the next year (1764) John inherited the business, making him now the wealthiest entrepreneur in New England.
John Hancock
Only a year later, in 1765, Britain made a fatal misstep in governing the restless American colonies when it passed the Stamp Act. The colonists felt unjustly wronged by this new taxation of nearly every business transaction made in the colonies and Hancock, like most other businessmen, ignored the new tax. Like many of his compatriots, he smuggled good into Massachusetts.
When his sloop, the Liberty, was seized in 1768, Boston citizens rioted and assaulted the British revenue officers. The British officers were forced back to their ship, the Romney and a boat belonging to the tax collector was destroyed, as well as several houses belonging to British loyalists. The British governor of Massachusetts did not feel safe and requested troops for protection; when those soldiers arrived, they were the first instance of military force in an American colony.
Hancock’s associates were British loyalists and like them, he strongly denounced the violence responsible for destroying the homes. But the British gradually imposed other taxes, also unjust in the eyes of the colonists. In support of Hancock and his smuggling to avoid paying the Stamp Tax, Hancock was elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1766, as a symbol for resistance, although he was not yet a resistance leader. A side note: the British threatened him with large fines for his smuggling, but the fines were never collected. However, the British never returned his ship.
Dorothy Quincy
The Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Boston Tea Party of 1773 further angered the colonists and in retaliation Britain passed the Boston Port Bill of 1774, closing the port until the cost of the dumped tea was repaid. Hancock had wavered for a few years in his support of the colonists’ resistance, but as the British imposed more and more taxes, all unjust in the eyes of the colonists, his loyalty moved toward the colonists’ side. He became totally committed, to the point of losing life and fortune if need be, after a talk with colonial Boston leaders, including Samuel Adams. When British General Gage tried (too late) to re-establish peaceful relations with the colonies, he offered amnesty to all rebellious colonists who would demonstrate penitence except two – Samuel Adams and Hancock.
The year 1775 was an eventful one for Hancock. In May he was chosen as president of the Continental Congress and in August he married Dorothy Quincy. When the Declaration of Independence was signed the next year, he not only voted for it but also was the first to sign and in the large flourish we all recognize. Supposedly he remarked that he wanted the King of England to be able to read his signature easily because he was a wanted man by this time. He would have been hanged if found by the British.
Hancock was forced to resign as president of the Continental Congress in 1977 because of his continuing health problems, however, he stayed on as a member. He was too ill to sign the U.S. Constitution. In 1780 he had been elected the first governor of Massachusetts under their new state Constitution and was re-elected governor nine times. He was in the governor’s office until his death in 1793.
Hancock's famed signature
During the War of Revolution, it was primarily Hancock’s money that armed and fed the volunteers from Massachusetts. In 1775 the American army besieged Boston in order to expel the British, who held possession of this major colonial town. To accomplish the removal of the British, the American officers proposed the entire city be destroyed. This would have wiped out the fortune of Hancock, “Yet he immediately acceded to the measure, declaring his readiness to surrender his all, whenever the liberties of his country should require it.”
