Hancock-Clarke House

Lexington
MA
Hancock-Clarke House

Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington

QUICK FACTS
  • On the night of 18 April 1775, first Paul Revere and then William Dawes — traveling separate routes from Boston to avoid capture — reached the house to report news of advancing British troops.
  • After making their escape, Hancock and Adams fled north and moved from place to place, staying away from Boston, until they went to Philadelphia to attend the Continental Congress, which convened 10 May.
  • The structure consists of two frame sections, erected by Rev. Hancock, first in 1698 and then in 1734.
  • The house was originally across the street; in 1896 the Lexington Historical Society saved it from demolition by acquiring and moving it.
  • The Hancock-Clarke House now serves as headquarters for the Lexington Historical Society.
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Completed in 1737 by John Hancock's grandfather, Reverend John Hancock, the house is now a museum.

The only extant residence associated with John Hancock, this was his boyhood home. In 1744, after the death of his father, the 7-year-old boy came to live at this house with his grandfather until 1750 (after which he joined his uncle, Thomas Hancock, a wealthy Boston merchant, who adopted him.)

Succeeding Hancock as minister in 1752, the Reverend Jonas Clarke and his wife, who was a cousin to John Hancock, reared twelve children in the parsonage. As a supporter of the Patriot cause, Clarke encouraged revolutionaries to use his home as a meeting place and refuge.

On the night of 18 April 1775, patriot leaders Hancock and Samuel Adams were visiting there. Around midnight, after everyone had gone to bed, Paul Revere and later William Dawes, warning the countryside of the approach of British troops, galloped up and in formed the household. They also delivered the warning from Dr. Joseph Warren that Hancock and Adams would likely be arrested. After some deliberation, Revere and Dawes proceeded to Concord; Hancock and Adams fled north towards Woburn.

Restored to its 18th-century appearance, and very well maintained, the house is open to the public for guided tours.

Associated People
Adams, Samuel
Clarke, Jonas
Dawes, William
Hancock, John
Revere, Paul

There is a symmetry between the folly of Burgoyne’s march south to Saratoga and that of Cornwallis’s march north to Yorktown. Military historians debate why Burgoyne risked marching south from Fort Edward in the same way that they question why Cornwallis advanced north beyond North Carolina into Virginia. Although Cornwallis had none of the outward vanity of Burgoyne, the two men were similar in that they were both junior generals and neither of them was commander in chief of the British army in America. Both blamed their subsequent failures on rigid orders and insufficient latitude. They both expected to march through predominantly friendly territory. They both ignored the chain of command and went over the heads of their superiors to communicate independently with Lord George Germain. They both allowed their supply lines to become overextended and their forces suffered harassment by enemy militia. They presided over the two most decisive defeats of the American Revolutionary War.

— Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2013)