The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 6: August 1906Various
History
The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 6: August 1906
Various
Periodicals
He wore a blue damask gown lined with silk, a white stock, a
white satin embroidered waistcoat, black satin small
clothes, white silk stockings, and red morocco slippers. It
was a general practise in genteel families to have a tankard
of punch made in the morning and placed in a cooler when the
season required it.
At this visit Hancock took from the cooler standing on the
hearth a full tankard, and drank first himself and then
offered it to those present. His equipage was splendid, and
such as is not customary at this day.
His apparel was sumptuously embroidered with gold, silver,
lace, and other decorations fashionable among men of fortune
of that period; and he rode, especially upon public
occasions, with six beautiful bay horses, attended by
servants in livery.
He wore a scarlet coat, with ruffles on the sleeves, which
soon became the prevailing fashion; and it is related of Dr.
Nathan Jacques, the famous pedestrian of West Newbury, that
he passed all the way from West Newbury to Boston in one
day, to procure cloth for a coat like that of John Hancock,
and returned with it under his arm on foot.
Hancock was a rich man. In 1764 his uncle, Thomas Hancock, left him about
eighty thousand pounds and the control of a large mercantile business. His
position as a colonial aristocrat emphasized the importance of his
defection from British allegiance. His patriotic services are well
remembered, but it is true, also, that he was somewhat vain and somewhat
jealous.
MEN WHOSE NAMES LIVE IN THEIR INVENTIONS.
ODD COINING OF SUITABLE WORDS.
McAdam, MacIntosh, and Guillotin Examples
of Men Whose Inventions Transmit
Their Names to Posterity.
Many common words have been derived from proper names, just as many proper
names have been derived from common words. The London _Globe_ cites
several instances of men who have been immortalized by the application of
their names to inventions.
While the word "macadamize" was rapidly establishing its position in the
English language, no less an authority than Jeremy Bentham gave it a
helping hand on its way by declaring that "the success of Mr. McAdam's
system justified the perpetuation of his name in popular speech."
This is, perhaps, the most perfect example of a spontaneous popular
impulse whereby an inventor who had benefited mankind was embalmed, so to
say, in his own invention. His name, connected indissolubly with it, was
handed down to future ages with a certainty that it would endure as long
at least as the language continued to exist.
But, curiously enough, at almost the same time when the great roadmaker
was achieving immortality, another inventor, with a no less obviously
Scotch name, was treading the same path to linguistic fame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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