John Hancock was President of the Second Continental Congress and of the Congress of the Confederation; first Governor of Massachusetts; and the first person to sign the United States Declaration of Independence.

John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in a part of town which eventually became the separate city of Quincy, Massachusetts. His father died when he was young, and he was adopted by his paternal uncle--Thomas Hancock, a highly successful merchant in New England.

Hancock married Dorothy Quincy. John and Dorothy had two children, neither of whom survived to adulthood. Lydia Hancock died at the age of about ten months. John George Washington Hancock died at the age of eight years.

He was also a Freemason. As Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he presented a flag to the Bucks of America black military unit of Boston.

From Wikipedia