2 MEMOIR OF IHE LIFE OF JOHN HANCOCK, 



The younger Miss Baker, who was married to Thomas Han- 

 cock, gave him two sons, John and Henry. The latter, who 

 was talented, never married, and died about the year 1850. 

 The former joined his father in business after leaving school, 

 but the shop and trade disgusted him ; JN'atural History was his 

 delight, and all the time he could spare he devoted to it- In 

 the memoir of his son Albany-'' it was recorded that he became 

 distinguished for his acquirements in that absorbing study, for 

 his collections of specimens in its different branches, and for his 

 library of the best books on Natural History, at a time when he 

 and his friends were almost the only students of nature in his 

 native town. He was certainly much in advance of his time in 

 the above pursuit. From him his children no doubt derived the 

 steadfast love and success in the study of his favourite science, 

 which have made the names of Albany and John Hancock cele- 

 brated, not only in their own country but wherever JS'atural 

 History pursuits are held in honour. ISTot only were they men 

 of mark each in his special department, but with their sister 

 Mary were artists in the true sense of the term. 



John, whose loss we all have had recently to mourn, was, as 

 his surviving sister Mary informs me, from his earliest years very 

 fond of birds; at Bensham, where their father had taken a house, 

 he, then a little fellow of about four years, used to run about in 

 the fields after birds trying to catch them. In 1812, after his 

 father's death at the early age of 43 years, his mother furnished 

 a house beyond the "Windmill Hills, Gateshead, which in those 

 days was quite in the open country, and so was nicknamed 

 'Botany Bay,' and there John and his sister Mary had their 

 summer enjoyments in hunting the fields and hedges for flowers, 

 birds, and insects. After a few years John was sent to school 

 with the Misses Prowitt, who had succeeded their father and 

 mother in the management of a then celebrated seminary for 

 young ladies and gentlemen, situated at the bottom of an entry 

 leading eastward from Pilgrim Street towards the Caiiiol Croft, 

 nearly opposite to the present Hood Street, and where there was 

 a considerable open space for recreation and an absence of smoke. 



* Nat. Ilist. Trans, of Northumberland and Durham, Vol. V., p. 118. 



