Word: hancockers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Wrapped up in the cause of the tyrannized colonies, Hancock was frequently out of town and handled the University's funds without troubling to keep books. By 1776, the school bad had enough, but Hancock paid no attention to hints that he resign his stewardship...
Finally in 1777, the Corporation at the request of the Overseers replaced him with Ebenezer Storer. While presiding over the Continental Congress, Hancock reluctantly turned over to a tutor 16,000 pounds sterling of the school's securities. The tutor had to sneak through enemy lines to return to Cambridge. And from time to time thereafter, Hancock gave back other notes as he ran across them...
...even as late as 1783, the Overseers reported that "it is not known yet what the late treasurer had received and paid." Hancock--by then governor of the Commonwealth--was enraged by this "indignity" and immediately switched his two sons from his alma mater to Yale...
Finally in 1785, the Governor acknowledged that he owed Harvard a balance of 1,054 pounds from his stewardship. He acknowledged it, that is, but died in 1793 without ever having paid a cent of it. Hancock's heirs, however, promised restitution and by 1802 had paid off the whole debt plus simple interest; yet the University is still out $526 of compound interest from its unfortunate appointment...
This settlement, of course, was only a minor irritation compared to the real problems of finance during the Revolution which were inherited by Hancock's successor. Treasurer Storer's faith and foresight led him to buy Continental Loan Certificates during these years of incredible inflation, and the Harvard history books single him out as one of the University's greatest heroes. Whether or not he saved the school from "hopeless bankruptcy," Storer's feat of raising the College's personal estate from $55,000 in 1777 to $182,000 some 16 years later was truly remarkable...