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Subject: [HANCOCK-L] Re: JOHN HANCOCK, THE SIGNER
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 10:07:10 EST

This is from Arvil, Re, the John Hancock family.

In a message dated 11/14/2000 5:05:36 PM Central Standard Time, ArvilH writes:


>
> This is information in answer to questions from people who have been told
> that they descend from John Hancock, the Signer of the Declaration of
> Independence.
>
> The Reverend Frederick Wallace Pyne has published a very extensive
> series of volumes titled "Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of
> Independence." Volume 1, The New England States, was published by Picton
> Press in 1997. Volume 6, Virginia, was just printed in March 2000. The
> biography for John Hancock, which appears in Volume 1, opposite his
> picture, is quite brief and reads as follows:
> 4: John Hancock
> "Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes."
> James M. Barrie
>
> John Hancock has perhaps the most famous signature on the Declaration
> of Independence. It is located directly under the last line of text in the
> center of the document in a very large, quite neat, elite, and elaborate
> hand. This signature has come to be used as an expression for signing any
> document - sign your "John Hancock." He was one of the five members of the
> Massachusetts Delegation, but because he was elected presiding officer
> (president of the Continental Congress) he did not sit with the Delegation
> and his signature was thus not included with the other Massachusetts
> Delegates.
> John Hancock was the son of The Rev. John Hancock and Mary Hawkes.
> Although his father died when the boy was only seven, young Hancock had a
> good education at the insistence of his childless Uncle Thomas Hancock. He
> graduated from Harvard College in 1754 at the age of 17. Upon his uncle's
> death in 1764 , John Hancock inherited an extensive mercantile business
> which he managed and further expanded, becoming quite wealthy. He was
> elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1766 and thus became associated
> with many of those in the Revolutionary Party.
> John Hancock was nearly captured by a British scouting party near
> Lexington on the night of 18 April 1775, but managed to escape just in the
> nick of time and shortly thereafter was in Philadelphia for the opening of
> the Second Continental Congress. He was elected President of the Congress,
> and re-elected the following year, thus seating him in the important Chair
> during the crucial year of 1776! Toward the end of the War of the
> Revolution, he found more interest in local Massachusetts politics, where,
> in 1780 he was elected the first Governor of the State. He served a total
> of nine terms as Governor, and presided at the State Convention to ratify
> the Federal Constitution in 1788.
>
> First Generation
>
> 1. John Hancock was born 12 Jan 1736/7 in Braintree (now Quincy), MA. He
> married Dorothy Quincy in Fairfield, CT on 28 Aug 1775. She was born in
> Boston, MA on 10 May 1747, and died in Boston, MA on 3 Feb 1830. He died in
> Braintree, MA on 8 Oct 1793.
> It can be seen below that there are no descendants of Signer of the
> Declaration John Hancock.
> Readers are reminded that John Hancock lost his father when he was
> quite young and was raised by his uncle Thomas Hancock. There were several
> other Hancock children in the area, cousins of John Hancock and children of
> Thomas Hancock's other brothers. Thus there were other Hancock relatives of
> the period of the Revolution in the same vicinity, but none of them are
> descendants of John the Signer!
> While it is possible that one may be "related" to one of these other
> Hancocks; it is not possible that one is a descendant of John Hancock.
>
> Children:
> 2 i Lydia Hancock, b. most probably in Philadelphia, in the fall
> of 1776, a short time before Congress fled to Baltimore in late 1776 (Oct)
> 1776; d. in Aug 1777.
> 3 ii John George Washington Hancock, b. 21 May 1778; d. 27 Jan
> 1787, from a fall while trying to use some new ice skates.
>
> I hope this will help you to answer any future questions about
> descendants of John the Signer.
>
> Regards,
>

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