Hancock's bridge was a strategic transportation route for the American colonies. Hancock House Marker.

A smaller, one story, two bay wing is located on the eastern side of the building and may have operated as a tavern during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as some evidence suggests. I am the daughter of William Bell Hillman, son of Gertrude Bell Hillman who was the daughter of William Williams Bell who was the son of Mary Jane Williams - the daughter of Reverend Williams and Elizabeth Hancock whose ancestors go through Thomas Hancock II and Thomas Hancock I, to Judge William Hancock.

Upon his death, the property passed to his wife Isabella and nephew, John Hancock. She was awakened by the screams of the dying men and jumped from a second story window on the west side of the house to make her escape. The Swedish Plank Cabin To the east of the Hancock House is a small wooden cabin. On the exterior western wall of the Hancock House, Willian and Sarah Hancock installed their initials [HWS] and the construction date [1734] in the brickwork. John’s inheritance of approximately 500 acres made him a major landholder in Fenwick’s Colony. He contributed to the development of the area by building a bridge across Alloways Creek in 1708. It was used by the Continentals to move cattle and provisions to General Washington at Valley Forge from the fertile lands of southern New Jersey. The Hancock House sits on property that was purchased from John Fenwick in 1675 by William Hancock, an English shoemaker. The masons who constructed it alternated red bricks laid length-wise, called stretchers, with blue glazed bricks laid on end, referred to as headers. I am thankful to you for this historical account of my heritage. The next morning while driving to a meeting in Salem, several British and Tory troops surrounded the Abbott carriage, tormenting the occupants by thrusting their bayonets at them, then showed them blood on their steel weapons and exclaimed, "See the blood of your countrymen." The bridge also accounts for the settlement's name. The bridge was named “Hancocks Bridge,” and it allowed passage on the highway between Salem and Greenwich. He died several days later. When John Hancock died in 1709, he willed his property to his son William. It was the site of a March 1778 massacre. 1.

The site is on the National Register of Historic Places. We feature smart, groundbreaking research and well-written narratives from expert writers.
Standing for over 275 years, the Hancock House remains a memorial to the militia men that perished during a surprise attack by the British on the morning of March 21, 1778. N 39° 30.484 W 075° 27.597. Not a shot was fired during the massacre. There is evidence to suggest a section of the house was leased for a tavern during the 18th & 19th centuries. The Revolution War massacre at the Hancock House in Lower Alloways Creek Township will be the focus of the program at the Salem County Historical Society's Quarterly Meeting. The British moved into the City of Salem on March 18, 1778. Tradition says that, within twenty-four hours, the child was born and that descendants of that child are living in Lower Alloways Creek township today.


On March 21, 1998, the Hancock House finally reopened to the public on the 220th anniversary of the massacre, a living memorial to those who perished that morning in 1778. Use our  event submission... Two Chances to Watch George Washington’s Annual Delaware River Crossing December 11 and 25, 2016 Each December, thousands gather on t... Salem County has the second largest concentration and variety of patterned brick houses after Burlington County, and in the nation. The militiamen were occupying the house as they guarded a bridge over Alloway Creek. That was a nice story...thanks for the history lesson!I am a direct descendant of Judge William Hancock; nine generations removed from Judge Hancock, who was the owner of the home and killed in the Hancock House Massacre by British soldiers March 21st 1778. A small skirmish, known as the Battle of Quinton's Bridge was fought, in which companies of the New Jersey militia were lured into a trap by British Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood and suffered significant casualties.Join me as I discover the unique and interesting historic sites that New Jersey and the nation has to offer.On March 20, 1778, Mawhood issued the following mandate to his British troops: “Go - spare no one - put all to death - give no quarters.” TWith local Tories and their slaves acting as guides, Major John Graves Simcoe and approximately 300 troops attacked the Hancock House which Judge Hancock allowed the local militia to use as barracks. The landscape of Salem and Burlington Counties is dotted with patterned brick houses, of which the Hancock House is a fine example. These homes were often built by the wealthy and comprised approximately one-tenth of the late eighteenth-century homes in Salem County. Among the ten killed and five wounded was Judge William Hancock, who had unexpectedly returned home that evening from Salem. When Ivan brought up the possibility of spending a day at the Delaware bayshore last weekend, I suggested that we make a visit to the Hancock.