John Hancock’s famously large signature appears on the Declaration of Independence central to America250.
Hancock was president of the Second Continental Congress when the Declaration was adopted. His prominent signature is positioned beneath the document’s text and became one of the best-known signatures in American history. In the United States, “put your John Hancock” later became an informal way to ask someone for a signature.
Hancock’s role is sometimes simplified into the story that he signed the Declaration first or signed it in a dramatic ceremony on July 4. The engrossed parchment was signed primarily on August 2, 1776, after Congress had adopted the declaration’s text. Hancock’s large signature is authentic, but many colorful quotations attributed to him about its size are later legends.
Hancock’s political career extended beyond the Continental Congress. He served as governor of Massachusetts and was a major financial supporter of the revolutionary cause. His name is therefore connected both with the declaration’s adoption and with the broader political history of the American Revolution.