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Marriage of John Hancock

From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol I. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859.

This evening was married, at the seat of Thaddeus Burr, Esq., at Fairfield, Connecticut, by the Reverend Mr. Elliot, the Hon. John Hancock, Esq, President of the Continental Congress, to Miss Dorothy Quincy, daughter of Edmund Quincy, Esq., of Boston. Floras informs us, that “in the second Punic war, when Hannibal besieged Rome and was very near making himself master of it, a field upon which part of his army lay, was offered for sale, and was immediately purchased by a Roman, in a strong assurance that the Roman valor and courage would soon raise the siege.” Equal to the conduct of that illustrious citizen was the marriage of the Honorable John Hancock, Esq., who, with his amiable lady, has paid as “great a compliment to American valor, and discovered equal patriotism, by marrying now while all the colonies are as much convulsed as Rome when Hannibal was at her gates. 1

 

1 New York Gazette, September 4.