Who was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence?

John Hancock was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence. As president of the Continental Congress, he placed the prominent first signature on the engrossed document.

Hancock's position explains why his name appears first; the order was not a contest among the delegates. His signature became famous for its unusually large, elegant lettering. The popular story that he wrote it boldly so King George III could read it without spectacles is a later legend, not an established historical fact.

The Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, but the parchment bearing the familiar signatures was mostly signed on August 2. Some delegates signed later, and the exact sequence of every signature is not fully documented. Hancock's role as Congress's president made his first placement official and symbolically important.

Hancock was a wealthy Boston merchant and prominent Massachusetts patriot. Before independence, British authorities seized his sloop Liberty in 1768, accusing him of smuggling. He later served as governor of Massachusetts. Thomas Jefferson drafted most of the Declaration's text, Benjamin Franklin helped revise it, and Samuel Adams was a leading revolutionary—but none was the first signer.