John Hancock (23 January 1737 – 8 October 1793) was President of the Continental Congress from 24 May 1775 to 31 October 1777 (succeeding Peyton Randolph and preceding Henry Laurens) and from 23 November 1785 to 5 June 1786 (succeeding Richard Henry Lee and preceding Nathaniel Gorham). He also served as Governor of Massachusetts from 25 October 1780 to 29 January 1785 (preceding James Bowdoin) and from 30 May 1787 to 8 October 1793 (succeeding Bowdoin and preceding Samuel Adams).
Biography[]
John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1737, and he inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies. Hancock lived the lifestyle of a wealthy aristocrat and was fond of expensive clothes, and he lived in England from 1760 to 1761.
American Revolution[]
Hancock as a ship captain
Hancock began his political career in Boston as a protege of Samuel Adams, an influential local politician, though the two men later became estranged. Hancock used his wealth to support the patriot cause as tensions with Great Britain increased in the 1760s, and, in 1768, British officials seized his sloop Liberty and charged him with smuggling. These charges were eventually dropped, and he would go on to become one of Boston's leaders during the crisis that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775.
Hancock served more than two years in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and he was the first to sign the US Declaration of Independence as President of the Continental Congress, famously signing his name in large script. He returned to Massachusetts and served as its governor from 1780 to 1785 and from 1787 to 1793. He used his role to ensure that his state ratified the US Constitution in 1788, and he died in office in 1793.