HANCOCK, JOHN

born Jan. 12, 1737, Braintree (now in Quincy), Mass. died Oct. 8, 1793, Quincy, Mass., U.S. American Revolutionary leader and first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. After graduating from Harvard (1754), Hancock entered a mercantile house in Boston owned by his uncle Thomas Hancock, who later left him a large fortune. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston and from 1769 to 1774 was a member of the Massachusetts General Court. He was chairman of the Boston town committee formed immediately after the Boston Massacre in 1770 to demand the removal of British troops from the city. In 1774 and 1775 Hancock was president of the first and second provincial congresses, and he shared with Samuel Adams the leadership of the Massachusetts Patriots. With Adams he was forced to flee Lexington for Philadelphia when warned in April 1775 that he was being sought by General Thomas Gage's troops, approaching from Boston. Hancock was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1780; he served as its president from May 1775 to October 1777. He hoped to become commander in chief of the Continental Army, but George Washington was selected instead. Hancock was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1780 and in the same year was elected governor of the state. He served in Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 178586 and then returned to the governorship. He presided over the Massachusetts Convention of 1788 that ratified the federal Constitution, although he had been unfriendly at first toward the document. Hancock died while serving his ninth term as governor.