John Hancock Term Papers

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John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737. John Hancock was born in Braintree Massachusetts. The parents of John Hancock were John Hancock Jr. and Mary Hawke Thaxter. After John Hancock’s father passed away his mother took him and his siblings to live somewhere else. Then his mother sent him to live with Thomas and Lydia Hancock. Thomas Hancock was very wealthy and owned a very successful shipping business. John Hancock went on to study at the University of Harvard. In 1759 John went to London and lived there for two years and returned to the colonies in 1761. In 1764 Thomas Hancock was getting very ill and passed away, then soon after that John Hancock inherited the family business. After Thomas’s death, John was given two political positions, one of them was managing local affairs in Boston, and then he was elected colonial legislature. …show more content…

To avoid the British taxes he took smuggled goods on his vessels. John Hancock had a boat called the Liberty and it was taken by the British in 1768. They found out that he hadn’t paid the required money and they gave him a very big fine and was also taken to court. After this mobs began flooding streets which led more British troops to move in. This led to the Boston Massacre when a British troop fired into the crowd. John Hancock tried to declare the British to leave. In 1773 when the Tea Act came upon them Hancock helped organize a protest. In 1774 Hancock was elected the leader of the Massachusetts delegate to the second Continental Congress. When the British started marching Hancock and Adams went to Lexington and then to Philadelphia. When the Continental Congress met in May of 1775 George Washington was made the leader of the Continental Army and John Hancock was made Congress president. Hancock was the very first person to sign the Declaration of