“John Hancock, Esq; lay past all hopes of recovery”
Newspapers in other colonies reported on him, though not always correctly. This item appeared in the Norwich Packet on 2 June:
By a Gentleman that arrived here Yesterday, from New-York, we are informed, that a Vessel from London had brought Intelligence, that…General [Thomas] Gage is ordered to send the Honourable John Hancock, of Boston, to England in Irons.That peril wasn’t why Hancock didn’t attend the Salem session of the Massachusetts General Court, though. Instead, he became seriously ill.
The earliest public mention of this illness that I’ve found appeared in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer. The issue was dated 22 June, but this item was dated 23 June, suggesting the newspaper may have been printed late: “By accounts from Boston we are told, that John Hancock, Esq; is in a very bad state of health…”
Things escalated quickly. John Holt’s New-York Journal stated on 7 July: “We have the melancholy news from Boston, that the Hon. John Hancock, Esq; lay past all hopes of recovery.”
And William Goddard’s Maryland Journal, 16 July:
The last Boston Mail brings us the melancholy News that the Honourable JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; that distinguished Patriot and amiable Gentleman, who has been long indisposed, lay, to the inexpressible Grief of his affectionate Countrymen, past all Hopes of Recovery.However, by then Bostonians could read good news in Isaiah Thomas’s 15 July Massachusetts Spy (delayed one day from its usual Thursday publication, probably because that had been proclaimed a “day of fasting and prayer”):
It is with pleasure we can inform the public that the Hon. John Hancock, has so far recovered his health as to be able to take an airing in his chariot.The following Monday, 18 July, Edes and Gill’s Boston Gazette shared inside information on Hancock’s health:
It is with the greatest Pleasure, we can inform tha Publick, that the Hon. JOHN HANCOCK, Esq; has so far recovered his Health, as to be able to walk abroad; and in the Course of the past Week, has twice honored this Office with his presence. He likewise attended divine Service Yesterday.Boston Post-Boy printers Mills and Hicks backed the Crown government, but even they shared that day’s news, albeit with less enthusiasm: “The Hon. John Hancock, Esq; is so far recovered from his long Indisposition, as that he Yesterday attended Divine Service.”
The update reached Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer on 21 July: “We hear from Boston, that the Hon. John Hancock, Esq; is now perfectly recovered; and is engaged in returning visits received from his numerous acquaintance during his late illness.”
Finally, on 18 August the Massachusetts Spy reported on a dinner in Roxbury celebrating the first public protest against the Stamp Act in 1765. It quoted several toasts, and the eighth was: “Recovered and confirmed Health to that worthy Patriot the Honourable John Hancock, Esq.” No other local was called out by name.
TOMORROW: The consequence of that illness.
2 comments:
"Seriously ill?" Was he really sick, or did he not wish to get clapped in irons, so feigned illness and hid in his house? Inquiring minds want to know!
By the 1780s, Hancock had a reputation for claiming illness when he didn’t want to do something politically, like deal with the debt crisis that led to the Shays Rebellion or defer to President Washington. And then in the 1790s he died at a relatively young age, so I guess he showed them.
The 1774 illness doesn’t seem to fit that pattern, at least in regard to the supposed threat from London. Hancock was quite visible when Gage first arrived in Boston with troops and for another couple of weeks. There’s no report he left town. He resumed public life and became even more visible as a Patriot leader when there were even more troops in Boston.
Tomorrow I’ll discuss a political responsibility that Hancock didn’t get because people thought he was ill. But that was the sort of job he usually loved to have, so I don’t him exaggerating his symptoms to get out of it.
In addition, the dire reports printed outside of Boston suggest that people who knew Hancock really believed he was in poor health for those weeks.
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