John Hancock Writings and Biography

Hancock, John; 1736/7-1793; merchant and statesman; member of Mass. legislature 1769; President Mass. Provincial Congress, 1774-1775; member and President of Continental Congress, 1775-1776, being first signer of the Declaration of Independence; member of Mass. Convention which adopted history's first genuine Constitution, 1780; elected first Governor of Mass. and re-elected intermittently for total of nine terms, dying in office in 1793; in 1788 presided over the Mass. Convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution.

Biographical data courtesy of The American Ideal of 1776: 12 Basic American Principles.