Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/83

 HANCOCK

HANCOCK

THE JOHN HANCOCK HOUSE, BOSTON.

1766-72; a member of the committee to demand of the royal governor the removal of the British troops from town, 1770; a member of the jaro vi- sional congress assembled at Concord, 1774-75, and was elected its president. The efforts of the ^ royal gov-

ernor to secure the pex'sons of Samuel Ad- ams and John Han- cock led to the battle of Lexing- ton, and paused Gen- eral Gage t exclude tliese two men from the general pardon of fered to the

rebels. He was a delegate to the Continental congress, 1775-80, and 1785-86, and was president of that body from May, 1775, till October, 1777. He was made major-general of the Massachusetts militia in 1776, and commanded the Massachu setts contingents in the expedition against Khode Island in August, 1778. He took part in the constitutional convention of 1780, and served the Commonwealth as governor, 1780-86, and 1787-93. He received four electoral votes for President of the United States in l789. He was the most wealthy man in Boston, and his money was subject to the needs of his country. In a discussion as to the best way to drive the British out of Boston, he is credited with meeting the issue with the suggestion to burn the town, and in the latter part of 1776 congress did give Wash- ington instructions to do so, if it should be neces- sary in order to dislodge the enemy, and the authority was signed by John Hancock, president of congress. He received the degree of A.M. from the College of New Jersey and from Yale in 1769. and that of LL.D. from Brown in 1788 and from Harvard in 1793. He was a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and was treasurer of the corporation of Harvard college, 1773-77, being removed from this office by the fellows of the corporation for neglect in making an accounting and settlement for the funds that passed through his hands In October, 1765, he ordered from London an invoice of books to be specially bound for the library of Harvard college to replace books burned in the fire of 1764. The cost of the invoice was £500 and the Hancock al- co-ve in Harvard library contams the 1098 vol-

umes as presented. He gave £1000, and the mahogany pulpit, deacons" seats and communion table to the Brattle Street church, soon after used as barracks by the British. He was married at Fairfield, Conn., Aug. 28, 1775, to Dorothy Quincy, and their only child, John George Wash- ington Hancock, died Jan 27, 1787, aged nine years. On Sept. 10, 1896, the monument over John Hancock's grave in the Granary burying ground in Boston was unveiled. It was secured by an act of the legislature of Massachusetts, passed Feb. 3, 1894, providing §3000 for the pur- pose. He died at Quincy, Mass., Oct. 8, 1793.

HANCOCK, John, representative, was born in Jackson county, Ala., Oct. 29, 1824. He at tended the University of East Tennessee for U\o years; studied law at Winchester, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1846. He removed to Texas in 1847, and the same year was elected state's attorney. He was judge of the 2d district court of the state, 1851-55; a representative in the state legislature, 1860-61, and was expelled in IbOl for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy. To prevent being con- scripted he went to Mexico in 1864, and thence to New York, and to Kentucky. At the close of the civil war he returned to Texas and was a prominent factor in reorganizing the state gov eminent. He was a member of the state consti tutional convention of 1866, and represented the ninth district of the state in the 42d, 43d and 44th congresses, 1871-77, and again m the 48th con- gress, 1881-83. He acted with the Democratic party and secured the regular issue of rations to Indians, prohibition of hunting parties on the plains unaccompanied by U.S. troops and the establishment of a military telegraph on the f ron • tier. He died m Au.stin, Texas, July 19. 1893

HANCOCK, Winfield Scott, .soldier, was born near i.iontgomeryville. Pa., Feb. 14, 1824, twin son of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth (Hex- worth) Hancock, and grandson of Richard Han cock, a native of Scotland who settled as a farmer in America, was a seaman in the war of 1812, and a prisoner in Dartmoor prison in England, and also a grandson of Edward Hex worth, a soldier in the Patriot army Benjamin Franklin Hancock was a native of Philadelphia; was brought up on a farm, taught school, studied law, was admitted to the bar m 1828, and practised in Norristown, Pa., 1828-68. Winfield Scott Hancock Mas edu- cated in the Norristown high school and acad- emy, wixs graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1844; was brevetted 2d lieutenant and assigned to the 6th infantry and joined his regiment on the Red River country bordermg on Texas. He was commissioned 2d lieutenant m 1846, and was stationed on the Mexican frontier when General Scott ordered him to join his command at Vera