Hanson, John, Jr.
Hanson, John, Jr.
HANSON, JOHN, JR. (1721–1783). Continental Congress president. Maryland. Born in Port Tobacco Parish, Maryland, on 3 April 1721, Hanson, a wealthy planter and merchant, was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates almost every year from 1757 to 1779, and was extremely active in events leading to the war. He was a member of the legislative committee that drafted instructions for the Maryland delegates to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress. He also signed the nonimportation agreement that Maryland adopted on 22 June 1769 in protest of the Townshend Acts and was a member of the Association of Maryland that, in June 1774, approved armed resistance to British troops. Serving as treasurer of Frederick County in 1775, he was chairman of the committee of observation and was commissioned, about that same time, by the Maryland convention to start a gun-lock factory at Frederick. He entered the Continental Congress on 14 June 1780 and started working immediately for ratification of the Articles of Confederation. This was completed on 1 March 1781, and Hanson was elected president of the Congress of the Confederation on 5 November 1781, serving a one-year term. He then retired from public life, dying on 15 November 1783.
SEE ALSO Continental Congress.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kremer, J. Bruce. John Hanson of Mulberry Grove. New York: A. & C. Boni, 1938.
revised by Michael Bellesiles