The Hancock family of Boston included wealthy colonial merchant Thomas Hancock (1703-1764) and his nephew John Hancock (1737-1793), president of the Second Continental Congress, governor of Massachusetts, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. This collection, dated 1664-1854, contains business and personal correspondence, financial records, and legal papers of Thomas Hancock, John Hancock, and other relatives and associates, including Ebenezer Hancock (1741-1819; Harvard AB 1760), his sons John Hancock (1774-1859) and Thomas Hancock, bookseller Daniel Henchman (1689-1761), and merchant and slave trader Peter Faneuil (1700-1743).

• Volume JH-6 John Hancock letterbook (business), 1762-1783, is also available in an electronic version.|Volume L-1, Ship Rebecca logbook, kept by James Scott, 1755-1757, is also available in an electronic version.|Volume TG-1, Thomas Goadsby copybook, 1787-1788, is also available in an electronic version.|are available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no. 64-4556.|are available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no. 65-1446.|are available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no. 68-6820.|is available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no. 70-9247.|is available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no.73-7422.|is available on microfilm (1 reel, 35mm.) for use in the Special Collections Reading Room, Baker Library. Order no.74-2648.

Influential Boston family that included wealthy colonial merchant Thomas Hancock (1703-1764) and his nephew John Hancock (1737-1793; Harvard AB 1754), president of the Second Continental Congress, governor of Massachusetts, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Hancock had a variety of business interests including bookselling, exporting codfish, whale oil, log wood, and potash, and supplying rum and provisions to the Newfoundland fishing fleet. Between 1746 and 1758, Hancock and his partner, Boston merchant and slave trader Charles Apthorp (1698-1758), secured contracts to supply British forces during King George's War and the French and Indian War. John Hancock inherited the bulk of his uncle's estate at the age of twenty-seven, but his increasing involvement in the cause of American liberty shifted his focus away from his business. His brother Ebenezer Hancock (1741-1819; Harvard AB 1760) and nephews Thomas and John Hancock (1774-1859) were also merchants. John Hancock also acted as an agent for Boston gunpowder sales of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company before and during the War of 1812.