John Hancock wrote the largest and most famous signature on the United States Declaration of Independence.
Hancock served as president of the Second Continental Congress and signed the engrossed document prominently beneath its text. His broad, distinctive handwriting made his name especially memorable, and “John Hancock” later became an informal American expression meaning a signature.
Hancock’s role is sometimes confused with authorship. Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft as part of a five-person committee, while Congress debated and edited the document. Hancock presided over the body that adopted it, but he was not its principal writer.
The famous visual signature is also connected with later legends, including stories about Hancock wanting King George III to read his name. Those anecdotes are not reliable evidence of what he said at the time. What is certain is that Hancock’s signature appears first among the names on the engrossed Declaration.