William M. Hancock

{{Short description|Mississippi state senator}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | office = President pro tempore of the Mississippi State Senate | order = 14th | term_start = January 1870 | term_end = January 1872 | successor = Joseph Bennett | predecessor = John M. Simonton | state_senate1 = Mississippi State | district1 = 9th | term_start1 = January 1870 | term_end1 = January 1872 | party = Republican | death_date = {{death date and given age|1891|3|8|73}} | death_place = Meridian, Mississippi, U.S. | birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|73|1891|3|8|noage=1}} }}

'''William M. Hancock''' (1817/1818 - March 8, 1891) was a judge<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1WjAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22w.+m.+hancock%22&pg=PA146|title=The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi|first=Mississippi Department of Archives and|last=History|date=July 26, 1904|publisher=Department of Archives and History|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DlURqtC7vPQC&dq=%22William+M.%22+Hancock&pg=PA265|title=The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War|first=Victoria E.|last=Bynum|date=February 1, 2003|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=9780807854679|via=Google Books}}</ref> and state legislator in Mississippi.<ref name="lyn">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16158/16158-h/16158-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Facts Of Reconstruction, by John R. Lynch.|website=www.gutenberg.org}} (Chapter 3)</ref> His father was Judge Jubal Braxton Hancock.

''The Clarion-Ledger'' identified him as a Radical Republican in 1869.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43946794/the-clarion-ledger/|title=Clipped from the Clarion-Ledger|newspaper=The Clarion-Ledger|date=9 December 1869|page=2}}</ref>

Hancock served in the provisional legislature in 1870 as president pro-tem of the Mississippi State Senate.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.sos.ms.gov/content/documents/ed_pubs/pubs/BlueBook16-20/16%2520Historical%2520and%2520Statistical%2520Info%2520Section%2520707-738.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2021-07-26 |archive-date=2021-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210707061915/https://www.sos.ms.gov/content/documents/ed_pubs/pubs/BlueBook16-20/16%20Historical%20and%20Statistical%20Info%20Section%20707-738.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4IyAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22w.+m.+hancock%22+reconstruction+mississippi&pg=PA85|title=Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form|first=Dunbar|last=Rowland|date=July 26, 1907|publisher=Southern Historical Publishing Association|via=Google Books}}</ref> He represented the 9th District, or Jasper County, from 1870 to 1871.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lowry |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1meUmjGDshUC |title=A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis |last2=McCardle |first2=William H. |date=1891 |publisher=R.H. Henry & Company |isbn=978-0-7884-4821-8 |pages=502 |language=en}}</ref> John R. Lynch's book on Reconstruction reported him to be the only Republican legislator to vote against Hiram R. Revels as nominee to the U.S. Senate. Lynch said Hancock believed an African American could not legally serve in the body.<ref name="lyn" />

In 1877, the Clarion-Ledger endorsed his nomination to be deputy collector noting his service during Democrat and Republican state governments.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24607350/the-clarion-ledger/|title=Clipped From The Clarion-Ledger|newspaper=The Clarion-Ledger|date=July 18, 1877|pages=2|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

He served as postmaster in Meridian, Mississippi, having been appointed by presidents Chester Arthur before being ousted by Grover Cleveland, and was reappointed by Benjamin Harrison.<ref name=":0">{{cite web | title=Article clipped from Oxford Eagle | work=Oxford Eagle | date=1891 | page=2 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oxford-eagle/170089973/ }}</ref> He died of pneumonia at 5 AM on March 8, 1891, aged 73.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web | title=Death of Judge Hancock | work=The Vicksburg Post | date=1891 | page=1 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-post-death-of-judge-hancoc/170089884/ }}</ref> His widow Mary Jane Hancock was nominated to take his place after his death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZKIAAAAMAAJ&q=william+m.+hancock+mississippi+senate&pg=PA36|title=Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America|last1=Senate|first1=United States. Congress|year=1909}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, William M.}} Category:Mississippi state senators Category:Radical Republicans Category:Year of birth missing Category:1891 deaths Category:19th-century members of the Mississippi Legislature Category:1810s births Category:People from Meridian, Mississippi Category:Presidents pro tempore of the Mississippi State Senate