John Hancock
As people talk about our Founding Fathers and what they did for our country there are a few who stick out from the rest of those who signed the document. John Hancock is one of the Founding Fathers who everyone can name, and who signed the Declaration of Independence. John Hancock was the first to sign the document in 1776. Going through his life an individual will get a better attribute for what John Hancock did in his lifetime, his political ideas regarding the government, how john thought and felt about the government, and why he signed the Constitution.
The Early Life
John Hancock was born on January 12, 1737 in Braintree (Quincy). Massachusetts. John Hancock was the fifth generation of his family born in Massachusetts in the Bay Colony. According to sources John Hancock’s “ancestors were of humble origins, but the family rose to prominence in New England, first as clergymen and then later as wealthy merchants” (Media, 2011 para 1). When John Hancock was seven years old, his father passed away at the age of forty-two, in which his mother took his siblings and him to live with their in-laws in Lexington. Sometime later John Hancock’s mother took him to live with his Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia who did not have any children of their own, so they adopted john as of their own child. It was John Hancock’s uncle (Thomas) a Boston merchant, who employed the most influence over John Hancock’s future in history as a patriot, and one of the Founding Fathers of this country.
John Hancock’s Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia were wealthy people and owned a large mansion on Beacon Hill in Boston, in which john their nephew was not quite accustomed to. They provided him with necessary means with gifts, fine clothing, and with formal education, wherein they would hope that john would be a successful merchant just like his Uncle (Thomas). John’s uncle hired a tutor to prepare him (John) for the prominent of Boston Latin School, in which was “ran by the autocratic John Lovell”
The Early Life
John Hancock was born on January 12, 1737 in Braintree (Quincy). Massachusetts. John Hancock was the fifth generation of his family born in Massachusetts in the Bay Colony. According to sources John Hancock’s “ancestors were of humble origins, but the family rose to prominence in New England, first as clergymen and then later as wealthy merchants” (Media, 2011 para 1). When John Hancock was seven years old, his father passed away at the age of forty-two, in which his mother took his siblings and him to live with their in-laws in Lexington. Sometime later John Hancock’s mother took him to live with his Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia who did not have any children of their own, so they adopted john as of their own child. It was John Hancock’s uncle (Thomas) a Boston merchant, who employed the most influence over John Hancock’s future in history as a patriot, and one of the Founding Fathers of this country.
John Hancock’s Uncle Thomas and Aunt Lydia were wealthy people and owned a large mansion on Beacon Hill in Boston, in which john their nephew was not quite accustomed to. They provided him with necessary means with gifts, fine clothing, and with formal education, wherein they would hope that john would be a successful merchant just like his Uncle (Thomas). John’s uncle hired a tutor to prepare him (John) for the prominent of Boston Latin School, in which was “ran by the autocratic John Lovell”