Free Web Page Hosting | Credit Report | Credit Cards | Web Hosting | Web Hosting
Search the Web


History Page
  Home Page | About Page | Photo Page | What's New Page | Contact Page | Favorite Links | Slide Show  

Revolutionary Events
On the night her father was killed, Sarah Hancock Sinnickson was at her home in Salem with a British force in residence.Frantic with grief and rage at the news of herfather's death, she fiercely reproached the officers for the horrid deeds committed by their comrades.The officers threatened to hang her if she did not desist. Sarah defied them and for whatever reason, the British did not carry out their threat.
In the 18th century, salem County was largely inhabited by English quakers who were opposed to violence and armed conflict. Yet manysupported the American cause. This stance inevitably brought the tragedy of war to hearth and home.
The winter of 1777 found General George Washington and his defeated and demoralized American Army encamped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.The British occupied Philadelphia. Both armies were in desparate need of food and supplies. In february 1778, General Washington ordered General" Mad" Anthony Wayne to forage for food, cattle and horses in South Jersey. A month later, General Sir William Howe dispatched 1500 British troops and loyalists under General Charles Mawhood to do the same.
Mawhood's foraging activities met with considerable resistance from the Salem County militia and local patroits. Repulsed at the Battle of Quinton's Bridge, a key transportation link to fertile fieldsof Cumberland and salem Counties, the British were eager for victory. They also wanted to punish the people of Salem County for their support of the Continemtal Army.
On March 20th, 1778, Mawhood issued the following mandate to his British troops, " Go---Spare no one---put all to death---give no quarters." At apporoximately five o' clock in the morning of March 21,1778, these orders were carried out.
With local Tories(British Loyalists) acting as giudes, Major John Graves Simcoe and a force of 300 men attacked the hancock House where they knew the local militia were stationed. Everyone inside was bayonetted:not a shot was fired. Among the ten who were killed was Judge William Hancock. The British had expected to find a much larger , more heavily armed force. They had not expected to find Judge hancock, who despite his strong, American sypathies, was an official of the British Royal Government. Proud of the "victory" but chagrined that they had not defeated the Americans, British troops left Salem County within a week of the masacre.
The Hancock House remained in the family until 1911, although the extent of which the house was used as a private residenceand the propeerty farmed is uncertain.
Petitions to operate a tavern, dating from 1761 to 1870 , suggest a section of the house was leased for this purpose. Another coommercial use of the propertyis revealed in the family will dated 1884. In it, the hancock Houose is described as a "hotel property and farm" The State of new Jersey acquired the Hancock House for in 1931 nad continues to maintain it todasy.

The Hancock Legacy
The Hancock House sits on property that was purchased from John Fenwick in 1675 by William Hancock, an English shoemaker. Upon his death, the property was passed to his wife Isabella and then to his nephew, John Hancock.
John's inheritance of approximately500 acres made him a major landholder in Fenwick's colony. He contributed to the developement of the area by building a bridge across Alloway's creek in 1708. Now known as "Hancock's Bridge", it permitted passage of an important highway between Salem and Greenwich and gave the settlement its name.
When John died in 1709, he left the property to his son William. William, perhaps the most distinguished of John's 11 children, became a Justice of the Peace for Salem County, and served in the Colonial Assembly for 20 years.
in 1734, William and his wife sarah built the Hancock House. Their initials[WHS] and the construction date[1734] can be seen in the brickwork on the house's west elevation.
Upon his death in 1762, William left his house to his son William, who suceeded him in the Assembly and became His Majesty's Judge of the County Court for the County of salem. It was this William that figured in the massacre of March 1778.



March 21,2005 see our commemorative flag, flying high over Monticello!!!!!!