Who signed the Declaration first as president of the Continental Congress?

John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence first as president of the Continental Congress.

Hancock’s prominent signature appears at the top of the engrossed parchment, beneath the document’s text. As president of Congress, he was the presiding officer when the Declaration was adopted, and tradition identifies him as the first person to sign the formal copy. His large, flamboyant signature made his name instantly memorable and later helped turn “John Hancock” into an American expression meaning a signature.

The declaration’s signing history has some uncertainty. Although Congress adopted it on July 4, most delegates probably signed the engrossed copy on August 2, 1776, with additional signatures added later. The surviving evidence does not record every individual’s precise order, so “first” is best understood as the conventional historical identification rather than a minute-by-minute reconstruction.

Hancock was a Massachusetts delegate and had served as president of Congress since May 1775. He was not the document’s principal author; Thomas Jefferson drafted it, with revisions by the drafting committee and Congress.