HANCOCK, John

(b. Braintree 1737 – d. Boston 1793)
Member of the General Court 1766–1774
President of the Provincial Congress 1774
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1776
President, Second Continental Congress 1775–1779
Speaker, Massachusetts House 1779
First governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1780–1785, 1787–1793
Presided over the state convention to ratify the U. S. Constitution 1788

Cast by the J. N. O. William Inc., Bronze Foundry, New York, 1915

Bronze, 80 1/2 x 50 1/2 in.

Gift of the Massachusetts Chapter, Sons of the Revolution, under Res. 1913, ch. 7.
Dedicated October 19, 1915.

Despite the larger-than-life role John Hancock played in the history of Boston, the Commonwealth and the nation, the bronze memorial in Doric Hall was the first tribute to the merchant, Revolutionary War patriot and governor. The portrait head, cast from a larger marble statue by Horatio Stone (1858) at the U. S. Capitol, is set inside a Renaissance-style recessed plaque inscribed with but a few of Hancock's many contributions. Hancock is also represented by a portrait in the gallery of governors (1893), and a mural in the House Chamber celebrating his proposal of the Bill of Rights to the Federal Constitution (1942).