Hancock Manor - Revolution and Early Republic

Revolution and Early Republic

British soldiers pillaged the house about the time of the Battle of Lexington in April 1775; they also broke down and mutilated the fences for firewood, until a complaint by the selectmen caused General Gage to send Percy to occupy it. He remained there for some time during the Siege of Boston. That March, British officers had allegedly set an example to their men by hacking the fences with their swords, breaking windows, etc. A few days later Hancock was again disturbed by the redcoats, who refused to leave the premises at his request and mockingly told him his possessions would soon be theirs.

The Hancock Manor became the headquarters of General Henry Clinton while he remained in Boston; he took command at Charlestown in September 1775. Both house and stables were in part occupied by the wounded from Bunker Hill. The house, however, remained relatively intact during the occupation, the furniture showing little signs of damage and the paintings none.

It was in this center of Colonial society that Hancock entertained d'Estaing in 1778, Lafayette in 1781, George Washington in 1789, Jacques Pierre Brissot, and later Lords Stanley and Wortley, and Labouchière and Bougainville. Hancock himself continued to live in the Manor while Governor; indeed it was called the "seat of his Excellency the Governor" at the time.

When d'Estaing visited, he was under a cloud for having deserted Colonial forces in Rhode Island, but the generous Hancock nevertheless entertained him hospitably. Some forty French officers dined daily at his table, and on one occasion the unusually high number of guests forced the servants to milk the cows on Boston Common (although these belonged to other owners). Brissot was astonished that Hancock was friends with Nathaniel Balch, a humorous hatter. It appears that the dying governor called Balch to his bedside and dictated to him the minutes of his will, in which he gave the Manor to the Massachusetts government. However, he died before his will could be properly drawn up.

In 1795, two years after John Hancock's death, the town of Boston purchased most of the estate for £4,000 and designated the pasture land as the site of the state's future capitol.