Everyone knows the name. Few know the merchant who put a fortune, a ship, and his neck on the line before he ever lifted the pen. Hancock inherited the House of Hancock. John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737, in Braintree — now Quincy, Massachusetts — the same town that produced John Adams. His father, a clergyman, died when John was a boy. An aunt and uncle took him in. Uncle Thomas Hancock was one of Boston’s great merchants. The boy went to Harvard, entered the countin