Thomas Hancock (merchant)
Thomas Hancock was an American merchant and politician best known for being the uncle of Founding Father and statesman John Hancock. The son of an Anglican preacher, Thomas Hancock rose from obscurity to become one of the wealthiest businessmen in colonial Massachusetts, accumulating a 70,000 pound fortune over the course of his lifetime and becoming the proprietor of his own mercantile firm.
Thomas Hancock (merchant)
A portrait of Lydia Hancock by John Singleton Copley
John Hancock was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that in the United States, John Hancock or Hancock has become a colloquialism for a person's signature. He also signed the Articles of Confederation, and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788.
Portrait by John Singleton Copley, c. 1770–1772
Around 1772, Hancock commissioned John Singleton Copley to paint this portrait of Samuel Adams, Hancock's early political mentor.
Portrait of Hancock by John Singleton Copley, c. 1765
Paul Revere's 1768 engraving of British troops arriving in Boston was reprinted throughout the colonies.
