The first signatory of the Declaration of Independence; the first Governor of Massachusetts; Major General of the American Revolution. Hancock graduated from Harvard University in 1754. He entered the counting-house of an uncle by the same name, who adopted him, and at his uncle’s death in 1764, he fell heir to his business. Hancock was, perhaps, the wealthiest man in Boston at the time. Notable of Hancock, he was chairman of the committee which protested the Boston Massacre and demanded the removal of British troops from the city. He was also the president of the first and second provincial congresses and was one of the few men excluded from the offer of general amnesty by the British as he was “too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration,” and the expedition sent by General Gage to Lexington and Concord in April 1775 was to capture Hancock, as well as destroy the materials of war. He was a member of the Continental Congresses from 1775-80, being its president from May 1775 to Oct. 1777. It has been an American urban legend that when asked why he wrote his name so boldly on the Declaration of Independence, Hancock replied, “So that George III (or John Bull) may read it without putting on his glasses.”

Source:
https://freemasoninformation.com/masonic-education/famous/united-states-masonic-founding-fathers/