Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/933

 From “hanaper” is derived the modern “hamper,” a wicker or rush basket used for the carriage of game, fish, wine, &c. The verb “to hamper,” to entangle, obstruct, hinder, especially used of disturbing the mechanism of a lock or other fastening so as to prevent its proper working, is of doubtful origin. It is probably connected with a root seen in the Icel. hemja, to restrain, and Ger. hemmen, to clog.

 HANAU, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Main, 14 m. by rail E. from Frankfort and at the junction of lines to Friedberg, Bebra and Aschaffenburg. Pop. (1905) 31,637. It consists of an old and a new town. The streets of the former are narrow and irregular, but the latter, founded at the end of the 16th century by fugitive Walloons and Netherlanders, is built in the form of a pentagon with broad streets crossing at right angles, and possesses several fine squares, among which may be mentioned the market-place, adorned with handsome fountains at the four corners. Among the principal buildings are the ancient castle, formerly the residence of the counts of Hanau; the church of St John, dating from the 17th century, with a handsome tower; the old church of St Mary, containing the burial vault of the counts of Hanau; the church in the new town, built by the Walloons in the beginning of the 17th century in the form of two intersecting circles; the Roman Catholic church, the synagogue, the theatre, the barracks, the arsenal and the hospital. Its educational establishments include a classical school, and a school of industrial art. There is a society of natural history and an historical society, both of which possess considerable libraries and collections. Hanau is the birthplace of the brothers Grimm, to whom a monument was erected here in 1896. In the neighbourhood of the town are the palace of Philippsruhe, with an extensive park and large orangeries, and the spa of Wilhelmsbad.

Hanau is the principal commercial and manufacturing town in the province, and stands next to Cassel in point of population. It manufactures ornaments of various kinds, cigars, leather, paper, playing cards, silver and platina wares, chocolate, soap, woollen cloth, hats, silk, gloves, stockings, ropes and matches. Diamond cutting is carried on and the town has also foundries, breweries, and in the neighborhood extensive powder-mills. It carries on a large trade in wood, wine and corn, in addition to its articles of manufacture.

From the number of urns, coins and other antiquities found near Hanau it would appear that it owes its origin to a Roman settlement. It received municipal rights in 1393, and in 1528 it was fortified by Count Philip III. who rebuilt the castle. At the end of the 16th century its prosperity received considerable impulse from the accession of the Walloons and Netherlanders. During the Thirty Years’ War it was in 1631 taken by the Swedes, and in 1636 it was besieged by the imperial troops, but was relieved on the 13th of June by Landgrave William V. of Hesse-Cassel, on account of which the day is still commemorated by the inhabitants. Napoleon on his retreat from Leipzig defeated the Germans under Marshal Wrede at Hanau, on the 30th of October 1813; and on the following day the allies vacated the town, when it was entered by the French. Early in the 15th century Hanau became the capital of a principality of the Empire, which on the death of Count Reinhard in 1451 was partitioned between the Hanau-Münzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg lines, but was reunited in 1642 when the elder line became extinct. The younger line received princely rank in 1696, but as it became extinct in 1736 Hanau-Münzenberg was joined to Hesse-Cassel and Hanau-Lichtenberg to Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1785 the whole province was united to Hesse-Cassel, and in 1803 it became an independent principality. In 1815 it again came into the possession of Hesse-Cassel, and in 1866 it was joined to Prussia.

See R. Wille, Hanau im dreissigjährigen Krieg (Hanau, 1886); and Junghaus, Geschichte der Stadt und des Kreises Hanau (1887).

HANBURY WILLIAMS, SIR CHARLES (1708–1759), English diplomatist and author, was a son of Major John Hanbury (1664–1734), of Pontypool, Monmouthshire, and a scion of an ancient Worcestershire family. His great-great-great-grand-father, Capel Hanbury, bought property at Pontypool and began the family iron-works there in 1565. His father John Hanbury was a wealthy iron-master and member of parliament, who inherited another fortune from his friend Charles Williams of Caerleon, his son’s godfather, with which he bought the Coldbrook estate, Monmouthshire. Charles accordingly took the name of Williams in 1729. He went to Eton, and there made friends with Henry Fielding, the novelist, and, after marrying in 1732 the heiress of Earl Coningsby, was elected M.P. for Monmouthshire (1734–1747) and subsequently for Leominster (1754–1759). He became known as one of the prominent gallants and wits about town, and following Pope he wrote a great deal of satirical light verse, including Isabella, or the Morning (1740), satires on Ruth Darlington and Pulleney (1741–1742), The Country Girl (1742), Lessons for the Day (1742), Letter to Mr Dodsley (1743), &c. A collection of his poems was published in 1763 and of his Works in 1822. In 1746 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Dresden, which led to further employment in this capacity; and through Henry Fox’s influence he was sent as envoy to Berlin (1750), Dresden (1751), Vienna (1753), Dresden (1754) and St Petersburg (1755–1757); in the latter case he was the instrument for a plan for the alliance between England, Russia and Austria, which finally broke down, to his embarrassment. He returned to England, and committed suicide on the 2nd of November 1759, being buried in Westminster Abbey. He had two daughters, the elder of whom married William Capel, 4th earl of Essex, and was the mother of the 5th earl. The Coldbrook estates went to Charles’s brother, George Hanbury-Williams, to whose heirs it descended.

See William Coxe’s Historical Tour in Monmouthshire (1801), and T. Seccombe’s article in the ''Dict. Nat. Biog.'' with bibliography.

HANCOCK, JOHN (1737–1793), American Revolutionary statesman, was born in that part of Braintree, Massachusetts, now known as Quincy, on the 23rd of January 1737. After graduating from Harvard in 1754, he entered the mercantile house of his uncle, Thomas Hancock of Boston, who had adopted him, and on whose death, in 1764, he fell heir to a large fortune and a prosperous business. In 1765 he became a selectman of Boston, and from 1766 to 1772 was a member of the Massachusetts general court. An event which is thought to have greatly influenced Hancock’s subsequent career was the seizure of the sloop “Liberty” in 1768 by the customs officers for discharging, without paying the duties, a cargo of Madeira wine consigned to Hancock. Many suits were thereupon entered against Hancock, which, if successful, would have caused the confiscation of his estate, but which undoubtedly enhanced his popularity with the Whig element and increased his resentment against the British government. He was a member of the committee appointed in a Boston town meeting immediately after the “Boston Massacre” in 1770 to demand the removal of British troops from the town. In 1774 and 1775 he was president of the first and second Provincial Congresses respectively, and he shared with Samuel Adams the leadership of the Massachusetts Whigs in all the irregular measures preceding the War of American Independence. The famous expedition sent by General Thomas Gage of Massachusetts to Lexington and Concord on the 18th-19th of April 1775 had for its object, besides the destruction of materials of war at Concord, the capture of Hancock and Adams, who were temporarily staying at Lexington, and these two leaders were expressly excepted in the proclamation of pardon issued on the 12th of June by Gage, their offences, it was said, being “of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment.” Hancock was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1780, was president of it from May 1775 to October 1777, being the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, and was a member of the Confederation Congress in 1785–1786. In 1778 he commanded, as major-general of militia, the Massachusetts troops who participated in the Rhode Island expedition. He was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779–1780, became the first governor of the state, and served from 1780 to 1785 and again from 1787 until his death. Although