Wife of John Hancock
As the presiding officer of the Continental Congress of 1775, John Hancock was the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence. This conferred upon his wife, Dorothy Quincy Hancock, the honor of being the wife of the first “signer.”
Dorothy Quincy was the youngest of ten children of Judge Edmund Quincy. She was born May 10, 1747 and grew up in a wealthy New England home.
Her mother carefully raised Dororthy through her early life. Cultured and agreeable, she attracted many admirers. Yet she remained a bright, unspoiled lady.
The Quincy household had many visitors. John Adams, a rising young lawyer of Boston at the time, was a frequent caller. In his diary, we find that several times he “had gone over to the house of Justice Quincy and had a talk with him.”
John Hancock, the handsome young merchant who had just inherited great wealth from his uncle, Thomas Hancock, was a welcome visitor at the Quincy home. The son of a highly respected minister and the grandson of another, young Hancock, graduated from Harvard College at the age of seventeen. In 1750, the young man was sent to England to take charge of the business’s London end. Here he listened to the debates of Parliament, saw the funeral of George II and the coronation of George III, and in many ways, come to have a good general knowledge of the English people and their way of thinking. Then he was recalled to America by his uncle’s death, who left him his estate.
At the age of twenty-seven, John Hancock found himself one of Massachusetts’s wealthiest men. He began devoting himself more and more to public affairs. His first public office was as selectman of Boston’s town, in which position he served for years. In 1766, he was elected to the General Assembly, along with his colleagues Samuel Adams, James Otis, and Thomas Cushing. Hancock was public-spirited, generous, and always ready to go to the aid of a friend. His popularity grew with everyone except the Governor. He held Hancock and Adams responsible for the increasing spirit of opposition to King and Parliament’s acts.
Consequently, when Hancock was elected Speaker of the Assembly of 1757, the Governor vetoed the choice. Shortly before this, Governor Barnard offered Hancock a commission as Lieutenant in the militia. Hancock, knowing that it was an attempt to bribe him, tore up the commission in the presence of many prominent citizens. At the opening of the Assembly’s next session, Hancock was again elected Speaker. It was also vetoed. Then he was elected a member of the Executive Council, and that was rejected by the Governor. This only endeared Hancock to the people. Preceding Lexington’s Battle, the British Government watched Hancock and Adams closely. They were regarded as dangerous men. In 1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts unanimously elected John Hancock as its President.
During this time, John Hancock was courting the handsome daughter of Judge Quincy. Her father was an earnest patriot. From which the mother had left in 1769, their home was the gathering place for such men as Samuel and John Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, James Otis, and others of their rebellious group. John Hancock seemed very much of a hero in the eyes of the young woman. Anyway, we are told that she was as enthusiastic a patriot as her lover and entered keenly into their plans and consultations.
At this time, John Hancock was living with his aunt, Lydia Hancock, and for safety had removed from Boston to the old Hancock homestead in Lexington, a relative, the Rev. James Clark living in the same house. When Judge Quincy was called away from home on business, Lydia Hancock invited Mistress Dorothy to pay her a visit. That is how Dorothy Quincy came to be present at the Battle of Lexington.
The Boston authorities, acting on advice from Great Britain, decided to take Hancock and Adams into custody. It was arranged to arrest them at Hancock’s home in Lexington, where they had been staying for several nights. They had been chosen as delegates to the Continental Congress. They expected arrest at any time if their whereabouts were known. Through their spies, the authorities had learned where Hancock and Adams were staying. They had also learned that a considerable quantity of ammunition and other stores had been gathered at Lexington. Elbridge Gerry had already warned Hancock and Adams to remain always on their guard. On April 18, General Gage ordered the march to Concord. It was then that Dr. Joseph Warren hastily dispatched Paul Revere on the ride that has made his name immortal. About midnight, Revere galloped up to the Rev. Mr. Clark’s house, which he found guarded by eight men under a sergeant who halted him with the order not “to make so much noise.”
“Noise!” exclaimed the excited Revere. “You’ll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out!”
A window on the second floor was raised, and a voice came down: “What is it, courier Revere? We are not afraid of you.” It was John Hancock himself, and Revere delivered his message.
“Ring the bell!” ordered Hancock, and the bell soon began pealing and continued all night. By daybreak, one hundred and fifty men had mustered for the defense. John Hancock, with gun and sword, prepared to go out and fight with the minutemen, but Adams checked him:
“That is not our business; we belong to the cabinet.” Hancock was loath to accept this, but finally saw the wisdom of Adams’s decision and went with him, back through the rear of the house and garden to a thickly wooded hill where they could watch events’ progress.
Dorothy Quincy and Aunt Lydia remained in the house, as no danger was apprehended there. So, by chance, they were eyewitnesses of the first battle of the Revolution. Dorothy watched the fray from her bedroom window, and in her narration of it notes: “Two men are being brought into the house. One, whose head has been grazed by a ball, insisted that he was dead, but the other, who was shot through the arm, behaved better.”
Hancock and Adams retired from their resting place in the woods to Rev. Mr. Merritt’s home in what is now Burlington. They later removed to Billerica, where they lodged in the house of Amos Wyman until they were ready to continue to Philadelphia.
It is said that John Hancock and the fair Dorothy Quincy had a little disagreement following the Battle of Lexington, just before he started for the Pennsylvania capital. The lady, unstrung by the day’s events, announced her intention of returning to her father’s home in Boston. Hancock, who realized the disordered and unsafe condition of the city, refused to allow this. “No, madam,” he said, “you shall not return as long as a British bayonet remains in Boston.”
“Recollect, Mr. Hancock,” she replied with Vehemence, “I am not under your authority yet. I shall go to my father’s to-morrow.”
The next day, however, Aunt Lydia smoothed down the little lady’s ruffled plumage, and it was many months before she again saw Boston. When she went back, it was as John Hancock’s wife.
A few days after the Battle of Lexington, Dorothy Quincy and Lydia Hancock went to Fairfield, Conn., where they were to remain for an indefinite period as the guests of Rev. Thaddeus Burr, a leading citizen. There John Hancock and Dorothy Quincy were married on August 23, 1775, by the Rev. Andrew Elliott. They left at once for Philadelphia, by way of New York, arriving on September 5.
In writing of the marriage, John Adams says: “His choice was very natural, a granddaughter of the great patron and most revered friend of his father. Beauty, politeness, and every domestic virtue justified his preference.”
Hancock was very much in love with his wife. Although he was busy with many duties, he wrote to her often with affection and respect.
The winter Martha Washington spent in Cambridge, she and Mrs. Hancock became warm friends, exchanging frequent visits. It was on these informal calls that the wife of the soldier is credited with the somewhat feline remark: “There is a great difference in our situations. Your husband is in the cabinet, but mine is on the battlefield.”
John Hancock’s position during the Revolution as President of Congress and later as Governor brought many calls upon both his hospitality and his benevolence. The generosity that marked him as a young man characterized all his career. His wife entered as heartily into his benefactions as she did his hospitality. After the Revolution, they entertained many prominence people, like La Fayette, Count D’Estaing, the French Admiral, Prince Edward of England, and many others. One of Mrs. Hancock’s grandnieces tells an anecdote of when Admiral D’Estaing visited the Boston harbor with his fleet. Governor Hancock invited him to dine on a certain date, with thirty of his officers. When the Admiral accepted the invitation and accompanied his acceptance with the request to bring all his officers, including the midshipmen, which would bring the number of guests to above a hundred. There was nothing to do but for the Governor to overlook the Frenchman’s bad manners and accede to the request. However, it was upon Mrs. Hancock’s resourcefulness that the duty fell hardest, of supporting so many guests in the short time available. The problem was speedily solved except for the item of milk. The Governor’s private dairy could not furnish all that was needed, and there was no place in Boston where such a supply could be obtained. Mrs. Hancock summoned the lifeguards and bade them milk the cows pasturing on Boston Common. If any person complained, to send them to her. This was done, and no one objected. Plenty of milk was obtained, and the dinner to the Admiral and his officers was a great success.
Count D’Estaing returned the courtesy by dinner on board his flagship, at which Dorothy Quincy Hancock Hancock was the guest of honor. By the side of her plate was a large rosette of ribbon, which much excited her curiosity. Before the toasts were drunk, the Admiral’s aide asked Mrs. Hancock to pull the ribbon on the rosette, which ran down under the table. When she did so, a gun fired, which was responded to by every vessel in the fleet.
Two children were born to Governor and Mrs. Hancock, a daughter who died in infancy, and a son who died in the ninth year of his age. John Hancock died in 1793, and several years later, Mrs. Hancock was married to Captain Scott, who had been a friend of her husband. Captain Scott died in 1809, after which his widow lived a retired life in Boston until her death several years later.