New at Old York
What does John Hancock have to do with the John Hancock Wharf?
By Anne Poubeau
Education Director
York’s John Hancock Wharf is the last 18th-century warehouse remaining along the York River.
Courtesy photo
John Hancock is well known for being the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, for being the first governor of Massachusetts, of which Maine was a province, and for being the first president of the Continental Congress after the Declaration of Independence.
John Hancock actually owned a half-interest in the warehouse located on Lindsay Road, adjacent to the George Marshall Store. He acquired it through a business deal in which he extended credit to York resident Daniel Bragdon, who he had known in Boston. Bragdon had been in a partnership with Capt. Joseph Tucker, who owned the other half of the warehouse and was one of the first customs collectors for the town of York. Bragdon fell on hard times and had to mortgage his estate to Gov. John Hancock on June 20, 1787. After Bragdon's death, Tucker and Hancock shared the ownership of the warehouse until Hancock's death in 1793. John Hancock's brother, Ebenezer, took over the ownership and eventually sold his brother's share to Tucker on May 26, 1800.
John Hancock's connections with York are sparse. His grandfather served briefly as a minister here after the Candlemas Raid. According to William Fowler, one of Hancock's biographers, the warehouse in York was the only one he owned outside of Boston and he did not use it to store contraband or to evade British taxes, which is what people believed for generations.
Local historians are not even sure that John Hancock ever visited the warehouse. The only mention of a visit to York by the governor of Massachusetts appears in Jonathan Sayward's diary:
1791: Governor Hancock and Lady & his sute paid me an agreeable visit and dined with a large company with which he honored me & in confidence regained my judgment of men for the good of the country in which I hope I have done some service.
In the late 1960s, the Newcomen Society in North America, a non-profit business educational foundation, owned the warehouse. They obtained National Historic Site status for it. At that time, it was the last 18th-century warehouse to survive along the York River, which had once been lined with them, a vestige of the town's once booming maritime trade. That alone made it significant, but attaching a famous person's name to the building had popular appeal; hence, the warehouse was named for John Hancock. Old York acquired the building from the Newcomen Society in 1994.
This short article is based on my research on the John Hancock Warehouse during the summer of 1999 when I was a Perkins Fellow. Every summer, four graduate students spend 12 weeks at Old York, researching our history, designing new exhibits and children's programs, and bringing fresh ideas to our museum. The 2007 Perkins Fellows will arrive in a few weeks. Please come greet them on Opening Day, June 9!
