Hancock family papers

8 documents (1767-1781), document fragments, and 2 ledgers belonging to members of the Hancock family of Massachusetts. Received from the estate of Mary Grew via USC-Aiken, February 2007, as contents found within a desk belonging to John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of the Second Continental Congress and Governor of Massachusetts (1780-1785).

Ebenezer Hancock (1741- 1819), John Hancock’s younger brother, operated a general goods store in Boston in partnership with Edward Blanchard in the 1760s, was later appointed later Deputy Paymaster General of the Continental Army, and resumed shopkeeping after the war. John Hancock, the wealthiest man in Massachusetts before the Revolution died intestate in 1793, and 1/3 of his estate passed automatically to his brother Ebenezer and included the Hancock House on Beacon Hill in Boston. Presumably this collection of papers was kept in the Hancock desk by family members.