Author: staff writer

Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence” painting was commissioned by the Senate in 1817 and purchased in 1819. Today it is exhibited in the United States Capitol Rotunda in the country’s capital. The painting is oil on canvas and its dimensions are 18’ x 12’. The painting is not meant to depict the signing of the Declaration of Independence but the committee presenting a draft to Congress. It shows 42 of the 56 signers with John Hancock presiding the session as President of the Continental Congress. Hancock is depicted as the man seated at the table in the foreground. Standing next to…

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John Hancock held the following public offices: 1765: Boston Town counsel selectman. 1765: Massachusetts representative to the Stamp Act Congress. 1766-1772: Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 1772-1774: Member of the Massachusetts General Court. 1773: Treasurer of Harvard College. 1774: President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress 1775-1778: Member of the Second Continental Congress. President from May 1775 to October 1777 and 1776: Firs Major General of the Massachusetts Militia. 1780: Member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. Ratified the Massachusetts Constitution. 1780-1785: Governor of the State of Massachusetts. 1787-1793: Governor of the State of Massachusetts. Back to John Hancock Homepage

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John Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies before joining the revolutionary cause. Hancock is best known as an American Revolutionary leader and the first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. He was an ardent revolutionary, philanthropist, President of Congress and nine times Governor of Massachusetts. Harvard educated, he was a rich aristocrat who enjoyed English culture and fashion and owe his fortune to British trade. An unlikely revolutionary, but how did he become one of the most ardent supporters of American independence? John Hancock inherited his wealth from his uncle, Thomas Hancock. Thomas Hancock founded…

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Was John Hancock a smuggler? A common joke of the time was “Sam Adams writes the letters and John Hancock pays the postage”. Great part of Hancock’s fortune came from smuggling but also a great part of it went to finance the independence war. In the eighteenth century Boston was the trading hub of British trade in the Americas worth £20million, a huge amount at the time. Boston was also important for its shipping industry as more than 30% of British ships were built in the American colonies, but most importantly because 40% of all British exports to the northern…

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