Hancock House

      Friday, March 11, 2022: After my visit to a country store in Salem County, New Jersey, I headed to a historical place: Hancock House Historical Site, 3 Front Street, Hancocks Bridge (856-935-4373). This 1734 house had a historical event happen here: On the 21/March 1778, British rangers attacked the house because they heard that the Continental Army stationed themselves here. Not a shot was fired because the British bayoneted everybody! Overall, the British killed 10 people and injured five more, including Judge Hancock who died days later. Through the years, the house remained in the family until the State of NJ bought it in 1931. The following year, the State of NJ opened it to the public (1932). On the date above, our tour guide showed us the following rooms: a front room from a later date that the Hancock family rented out to others to use as a tavern/inn. This room contained a few display cases of items that were once here or near the property. Other exhibits showed two uniform replica displays of a British Ranger from the 1700s and a Continental Soldier, as well as a special section about Cornelia Hancock (1840-1927). Cornelia had been a teacher, an American Civil War nurse, and later, a social reformer who founded the Children’s Aid Society. Once in the 1700s section of the house, I looked around at the Keeping Room and a back room/bedroom. The staff furnished both rooms to look the way they might have looked in the 1770s as our tour guide told us more about the history of this place and of the Hancock Family. It is a worthwhile place to see how Quakers and others lived their everyday lives in the 18th century and to reflect on the events that happened here.