John Hancock was president of the Second Continental Congress when it approved the Declaration of Independence.
Hancock, a wealthy Boston merchant and Massachusetts patriot, became president of the Second Continental Congress in May 1775. He presided while delegates debated independence, directed the war effort, and approved the Declaration in Philadelphia in July 1776.
His large signature appears prominently on the engrossed parchment copy. Although popular tradition often treats the signature as an extravagant act of defiance, Hancock was signing in his official capacity as Congress’s president. The familiar saying about making the signature large is not documented from the event itself.
Hancock later served as governor of Massachusetts. He was a major political figure in the revolutionary era, but he did not write the Declaration; Thomas Jefferson drafted it as part of a committee appointed by Congress.