Daniel Henchman (1689–1761): The Most Eminent Bookseller in Colonial America — and John Hancock's Grandfather-in-Law

Among the most distinguished members of our broader family tree is a man whose name appears in the most consequential chapters of early American history — a Boston bookseller and publisher whose enterprise helped shape colonial intellectual life, whose family connections touched the very heart of the American Revolution, and who is described by historians as "the most eminent and enterprising bookseller that appeared in Boston, or, indeed, in all British America, before the year 1775."

His name was Daniel Henchman — born in Boston on January 21, 1689, and died there on February 25, 1761 — and he was the grandson of Captain Daniel Henchman (1623–1685), one of the earliest Henchman immigrants to New England from London.

The Family Connection

Daniel Henchman traces directly to the same English roots as our Hinchman family. His grandfather, Captain Daniel Henchman, emigrated from London to New England and became a captain in the New England Confederation, serving with distinction in King Philip's War (1675–1678) — the devastating conflict between English colonists and the Wampanoag confederacy that was, proportionally, one of the deadliest wars in American history.

The Henchman/Hinchman spelling variants were interchangeable in 17th and 18th-century records, and Captain Daniel Henchman belongs to the same family tree that our Society has been preserving since 1994. His grandson Daniel — the bookseller — represents one of the highest-achieving branches of the early American family.

A Bookshop at the Crossroads of Colonial Boston

In 1711, shortly after turning 21, Daniel Henchman opened a bookshop on the corner of State and Washington streets in Boston — one of the busiest intersections in colonial New England, steps from the Old State House. The shop became one of the most celebrated commercial establishments in the colonies.

As the renowned publisher Isaiah Thomas later wrote: "Henchman was the most eminent and enterprising bookseller that appeared in Boston, or, indeed, in all British America, before the year 1775." High praise from a man who would himself become one of the most important figures in American printing history.

Henchman's business was not merely the buying and selling of imported books. He was an active publisher, commissioning printers — most notably Samuel Kneeland and Timothy Green — to produce new works for the colonial market. Among his most consequential commissions was nothing less than the first English-language Bible printed in British America. Because British copyright law strictly prohibited unauthorized reprinting of the Bible, the print run had to be performed secretly, bearing the same London imprint as the edition it copied. It was a bold, legally risky act of intellectual enterprise — and it succeeded.

Founding New England's First Paper Mill

Books require paper, and paper was expensive and scarce in colonial New England, all of it imported from England at significant cost. In 1728, Henchman took the lead in persuading the Massachusetts Assembly to support the establishment of a paper mill in the colony. The following year, he joined with partners including Benjamin Faneuil and Thomas Hancock to build a paper manufactory at Milton, Massachusetts, on the Neponset River — the first paper mill in New England and the first north of New Jersey.

The impact was significant: locally produced paper reduced costs and reduced dependence on England, contributing to the broader economic independence that would eventually fuel the colonial rebellion.

The John Hancock Connection

The most remarkable fact about Daniel Henchman's family legacy may be this: his daughter Lydia Henchman married Thomas Hancock — the wealthy Boston merchant whose estate passed, upon his death, to his nephew John Hancock: the President of the Continental Congress, the first and most flamboyant signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most famous names in American history.

As a young man, Thomas Hancock had clerked in Daniel Henchman's bookstore — learning commerce and letters at the elbow of the most prominent bookseller in British America. He later married the bookseller's daughter, and the wealth that would eventually fund John Hancock's Patriot activities had its roots, in part, in the enterprise of a Henchman bookseller on State Street in Boston.

John Hancock was thus the great-nephew by marriage of Daniel Henchman — making Daniel Henchman a distant family connection to the most recognizable signature in American history.

Civic Life and Legacy

Henchman was far more than a merchant. He served as:

• Incorporator of Boston's Fire Society (1717)
• Militia officer, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
• Justice of the Peace
• Deacon of Old South Church
• Overseer of the Poor (1735–1756), contributing generously to Boston's charity fund

He died in 1761, fourteen years before the Revolution he had helped make possible — by building the intellectual and commercial infrastructure of colonial Boston, one book, one sheet of paper, one civic act at a time.

Daniel Henchman stands as one of the most accomplished members of the extended Henchman/Hinchman family in American history. His story is a reminder that our family's roots reach deep into the foundations of this republic.