It seems likely that the Hancocks sailed with Warren Hastings for England in the _Medway_ in 1764-5; but, whenever they went, we learn from Hancock's letters that the journey home cost them the large sum of L1500. He (Hancock) no doubt thought that he had amassed a sufficient fortune--perhaps from trading, or from private practice, for it can hardly have been from his official income--in India to enable him to end his days comfortably at home. But either his Indian investments turned out badly, or he discovered that living in good style in England cost much more than he had anticipated; and after three years he found himself under the disagreeable necessity of a second residence in Bengal, in order to secure a fresh provision for his wife and daughter. So low, indeed, were his finances at the time, that he was forced to borrow money from Hastings to pay for his passage out. He reached Calcutta in 1769, but did not prosper on this second visit. His health was bad, his trading ventures turned out amiss, and there were perpetual difficulties about remitting money home to Philadelphia. Hastings evidently foresaw how matters would end, and with his wonted generosity gave a sum amounting at first to L5000, and increased later to L10,000, in trust for Hancock and his wife during their lives, and, on the death of the survivor, to Betsy. Mr. Hancock himself died in November 1775, 'universally beloved and deeply regretted' (in the words of a young man whom he had befriended), 'the patron of the widow and the fatherless.'[26] He seems indeed to have been a man of affectionate and anxious disposition, strongly attached to his wife and daughter; but the last part of his life was passed away from them amid difficulties and disappointments, and his spirits were hardly high enough to enable him to bear up against unequal fortune. He alludes in his letters, with expressions of regard, to his brother-in-law, George Austen; but characteristically deplores his growing family, thinking that he will not be able to put them out in the world--a difficulty which did not eventually prove to be insuperable.