Dorothy Quincy

{{Short description|Wife of John Hancock}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott

| image = Dorothy Quincy Hancock.jpg

| caption = Oil painting of Dorothy Quincy, c. 1772 by Copley

| birth_date = {{birth date|1747|5|10}}

| birth_place = Boston, New England Colonies

| death_date = {{death date and age|1830|2|3|1747|5|10}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, United States

| occupation = 1st and 3rd First Lady of Massachusetts

| predecessor =

| successor = Elizabeth Adams

| spouse = {{plainlist|

• John Hancock (1775–1793)
• James Scott (1796–1809)

}}

| children = Lydia Henchman Hancock (1776–1777), John George Washington Hancock (1778–1787)

| parents = Edmund Quincy (1703–1788),
Elizabeth Wendell (1704–1769){{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/dorothy-quincy-mrs-john-hancock-34208 |title=Dorothy Quincy (Mrs. John Hancock) |date=March 14, 2018}}

| imagesize =

}}

Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|w|ɪ|n|z|i}}; May 21 (May 10 O.S.) 1747 – February 3, 1830) was an American hostess, daughter of Justice Edmund Quincy of Braintree and Boston, and the wife of Founding Father John Hancock.{{cite book |author=Cutter, William |title=Genealogical & Personal Memoirs's Vol II |location=Lincoln: Nebraska |publisher=Lewis Historical Publish Co |year=1908 |page=594}} Her aunt, also Dorothy Quincy, was the subject of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem Dorothy Q.{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Mary Caroline |title=The Romance of Old New England Rooftrees |publisher=L. C. Page & Company |year=1902 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanceoldnewen05crawgoog/page/n141 117] |url=https://archive.org/details/romanceoldnewen05crawgoog |access-date=March 17, 2008}}

File:John Hancock painting.jpg

File:Quincy Homestead Quincy MA 02.jpg

File:Hancock House Ticonderoga, New York Dec 11.jpg Boston home was built by the Ticonderoga Historical Society at 6 Moses Circle, Ticonderoga, New York.]]

Dorothy Quincy was raised at the Quincy Homestead in what became Quincy, Massachusetts. The house is a National Historic Landmark, known as the Dorothy Quincy House. She married John Hancock in 1775. He presided at the creation of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was a two-time Governor of Massachusetts. Their first child, Lydia Henchman Hancock, was born in 1776 and died ten months later.{{cite book |last=Fowler |first=William M. |author-link=William M. Fowler |year=1980 |title=The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=0-395-27619-5 |url-access=registration |url= https://archive.org/details/baronofbeaconhil0000fowl }} Their son, John George Washington Hancock, born in 1778, died in 1787 while ice skating on a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, when he fell through the ice and drowned.{{sfn|Fowler|1980|pp=229, 265}}

In 1796, after Hancock's death in 1793, Quincy married Captain James Scott (1742–1809), who had been employed by Hancock as a captain in his trading ventures with England. They lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and had no children together. When Captain Scott died, Dorothy moved back into the Hancock Mansion at 30 Beacon Street in Boston for about 10 years. After that, she lived at 4 Federal Street in Boston.{{Cite web |title=Dorothy Quincy Hancock |url=https://www.johnhancock.org/p/dorothy-quincy-hancock-dorothy-quincy.html |access-date=2023-05-16 |language=en}}

File:Hancock-Clarke House.jpg, 36 Hancock St., Lexington, Massachusetts.]]

Dorothy was a well-known hostess, and much was written about her. Chroniclers noted that she was beautiful, well-spoken, and intelligent. She witnessed the Battle of Lexington while staying with her future husband's aunt, Lydia Hancock, at the home of Rev. Jonas Clark, now known as the Hancock–Clarke House.Wives of the Signers: The Women Behind the Declaration of Independence (1997), Harry Clinton Green, Mary Wolcott Green, and David Barton, pp. 18–32. When Hancock told her after the battle that she could not return to her father in Boston, she retorted, "Recollect Mr. Hancock, that I am not under your control yet. I shall go to my father tomorrow."Brown, R: "Incidents in the Life of John Hancock: as related by Dorthy Quincy Hancock Scott", Magazine of American History, Vol XIX:1888:506, Barnes, NY.

During the American Revolution, the Hancocks hosted the Marquis de Lafayette, and in October 1781, he came to their house with the news that the British had surrendered at Yorktown. In 1824, Lafayette toured the United States at the invitation of President James Monroe. During the welcoming procession in Boston, where he was escorted by her nephew, Mayor Josiah Quincy III, Lafayette saw Dorothy Quincy watching from a balcony. He stopped his carriage, placed his hand on his heart, and bowed to her with tears in his eyes. She returned the gesture, burst into tears, and said, "I have lived long enough."{{cite book |last=LaPlante |first=Eve |year=2012 |title=Marmee & Louisa |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |page=35 |isbn=978-1-4516-2066-5 }}

In her novel, An Old-Fashioned Girl, Louisa May Alcott, Quincy's great-grandniece, has her character, Grandma Shaw, witness Lafayette's visit. {{sfn|LaPlante2012|p=35}}