HANCOCK, John (1737-1793), American revolutionary statesman, was bornât Quincy, Massachusetts, January 12, 1737. Having taken his degree at Harvard university in 1754, he began a mercantile career, and on the death of an uncle in 1764 succeeded to a large fortune and a prosperous business. In 1768, two years after his election to the Massachusetts house of representatives by the city of Boston, his sloop “Liberty” was seized for contravention of the commercial laws, and in the riot which followed the royal customs commissioners barely escaped with their lives. After the “massacre” of Boston in 1770, Hancock inveighed with such spirit and bitterness against the troops and their officers, demanding their removal from the town, that he became obnoxious to the Government; and five years afterwards the attempt to seize his person led to the first revolutionary battle at Concord, Massachusetts. In 17 74 Hancock was president of the provincial congress, and from 1775 to 1777 of the general congress at Philadelphia, where he was the first to sign the declaration of independence. Returning to Massachusetts he assisted in framing its constitution, and in 1780 was chosen first governor. He was annually elected to this dignity till 1785, and again from 1787 to 1793, sitting as an ordinary member of the legislature in the interval. He received the degree of LL.D, from Harvard university in 1792. He died at Quincy, 8th October 1793.