John Hancock — Bold Signature, Merchant Prince, Governor

**John Hancock** was the founding generation's boldest brand-builder and most prominent merchant-politician — the man whose signature on the Declaration of Independence was so large and flamboyant that "putting your John Hancock on it" has been an American idiom for 250 years. Born in 1737 in Braintree, Massachusetts, he was orphaned young and adopted by his uncle Thomas Hancock, one of the wealthiest merchants in New England. By the time he inherited the business at 27, Hancock was the richest man in Massachusetts — and he understood instinctively what Samuel Adams understood strategically: money and visibility, properly deployed, could be more revolutionary than muskets.