316 HANCOCK COUNTY. 



with either cane or wild pea and other luxuriant plants. 

 I understand the Indian, found here said they knew nothing 

 about them. The large mound was evidently thrown up by 

 human agency, for though it has never been regularly ex- 

 amined, it has been excavated in various places." 



Name. — When the Legislature of Georgia named this por- 

 tion of her territory Hancock, they designed to commemorate 

 the services of John Hancock, whose name appears so conspi- 

 cuous upon the Declaration of American Independence. Mas- 

 sachusetts had the honour of giving birth to this illustrious 

 man. He graduated at Harvard College, when he was only 

 seventeen years old ; after which he was a clerk in the count- 

 ing-house of his uncle, to whose wealth and business he 

 succeeded in 1764; but his commercial arrangements did not 

 prevent his taking an interest in the cause of his country's 

 freedom. None exerted himself with more vigour in framing 

 associations intended to hinder the introduction of English 

 goods. When the good of his country required sacrifices, 

 there were none which Mr. Hancock was unwilling to make. 

 His patriotism was displayed in 1775, when it was proposed 

 by the American officers who conducted the siege of Boston, 

 to bombard and destroy the town, that the foe might be driven 

 out. Mr. Hancock, whose property was thus exposed to destruc- 

 tion, was among the first to request that no regard to his inte- 

 rests should obstruct the operations of the army. When the 

 Revolution broke out, he must have stood high among his 

 countrymen, for he had the honour, in conjunction with Sa- 

 muel Adams, to be made an exception to the pardon offered by 

 the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, in the proclamation de- 

 claring the province in a state of rebellion. In 1775, he was 

 elected to the august station of President of the Continental 

 Congress. In 1780 he was made Governor of Massachusetts, 

 which office he continued to hold for several years. He died 

 in 1793, the year in which this county was named after him. 

 The author of Familiar Characters describes Mr. Hancock 

 " as being nearly six feet in stature, of thin person, stooping a 

 little, and apparently enfeebled by disease. His manners were 

 very gracious, of the old style of dignified complaisance. As 

 a public man, his country is greatly indebted to him." 



