John+Hancock

John Hancock was an important person in the revolution. He was a American Revolution leader and one of the first men to sign the Declaration of Independence. With all the things that he did he was also a company leader, president of the Provincial Congress and a governer.

John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusettes, which is now Quincy Massachusetts, on January 23,1737 (depending on what calender you use, it could also be January 12, 1737). His father died when he was a young boy, After he died one of his uncles adopted him. His uncle was a very rich and powerful person. In Boston, John joined his uncle in the rich buisness. When he died, John took over the company. From there, he got very rich and powerful, just like his uncle.

When he grew up, he joined the congress so he could help write laws and the Declaration of Independence. The reason he did this was because he thought it was unjust what the British were doing to the colonists. He did not like all the laws, rules and acts that the British where forcing the colonists to follow these things with no say in them.

In 1774, Hancock was chosen president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and the following year he became the leader of the Boston patriot committee. John Hancock and Samuel Adams had become such prominent protestors against the British, that their arrest was ordered. When their arrest was imminent, Paul Revere warned them and they escaped from Lexington just as the battles of Lexington and Concord occured, setting off the Revolutionary War.

On July 4, 1776 John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. This signing was very famous for two reasons; One beacuse he wrote his signature so big, and two beacuse it was the first signature on the Declaration of Independance. The reason he might of signed his name so big was so it would stand out when the king saw it and so more people would be influenced to sign it. By signing it, they where all at risk of execution from the king. The British government wanted all the men who signed it dead because those men where getting more colonist to rebel from Great Britian. Hancock was an active figure in Massachusetts's politics, and he was elected governor for nine annual terms between 1780 and 1793. He dropped out of the governor's office in 1785, allegedly because he suffered from an attack of gout. He remained popular and returned to the governor's office when some difficulties had been overcome.

Hancock devoted himself to Massachusetts, and his great popularity there led him to hold on to the governor's office for most of the period from 1780 until his death in Quincy, Massachusetts, on October 8, 1793.

Bibliographys: //world book//. chicago,il: world book inc., 2005. Print.