Dorothy Quincy

Who was Dorothy Quincy?

Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott was an American hostess, daughter of Justice Edmund Quincy of Braintree and Boston, and the wife of Founding Father John Hancock. Her aunt, also named Dorothy Quincy, was the subject of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem Dorothy Q.

She was raised at the Quincy Homestead in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts. The house in which she lived has been designated a National Historic Landmark, and is known as the Dorothy Quincy House. She married John Hancock, who presided at the formation of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and was two time Governor of Massachusetts, in 1775.

In 1796, after Hancock's death in 1793, Quincy married Captain James Scott, who had been employed by Hancock as a captain in his trading ventures with England. They lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and had no children together. When Captain Scott died, Dorothy moved back into the Hancock Mansion at 30 Beacon Street in Boston for about 10 years. After that time she lived at 4 Federal Street in Boston.

Dorothy was a well known hostess and a great deal was written about her. Many chroniclers of the time note that she was not only beautiful, but well spoken and intelligent.