Hancock House

Built in 1734 by Quakers William and Sarah Hancock, the Hancock House is an important tangible link to Salem County's history and our country’s struggle for independence. After William’s death in 1762, the house passed to his son, William Jr., who succeeded him in the Assembly and became His Majesty’s Judge of the County Court of Salem. On March 20, 1778, the British attacked Hancock’s Bridge. Major John Graves Simcoe and 300 of his Queen’s Rangers surprised the militia at Hancock’s Bridge and attacked a nearby militia quartered in the Hancock House. Among the casualties was Judge William Hancock, who died several days later.

The exterior of the Hancock House is an outstanding example of the patterned brick houses that once dotted the landscape of Salem County, NJ. Modeled after the seventeenth-century building traditions of the Quakers’ English homeland, masons used variations in color and placement to create designs, dates, and initials. The initials of William and Sarah Hancock and the date that the house was built (1734) can be seen in the brickwork of the Hancock House.