An American Patriot, who signed his name to the Declaration of Independence, visited the Worcester Historical Museum Saturday.

John Hancock, played by actor Daniel Berger Jones, brought along his 245-year-old trunk which held many historical papers used in the American Revolution. 

Its history dates back to April 18, 1775 when Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying in Lexington, Massachusetts on the eve of the battle of Lexington and Concord. The trunk, which at the time was filled with Hancock’s personal notes and correspondence considered traitorous by the British, was being stowed at a tavern in Lexington. On the morning of April 19, as the British advanced toward Lexington for the battle, Hancock and Adams were moved to evade capture. Paul Revere and Hancock’s clerk retrieved the trunk from the tavern and hid it from the British.

Hancock was at the museum sharing stories of the trunk's history.

"Certainly any of the correspondence from the provincial congress conveyed that the treason the British suspected was afoot, indeed was. We had many supply lines for our weaponry. We were building militias all throughout. All of the names of the men I had to deal with in Philadelphia were somewhere contained within. It was a truly harrowing moment to realize the British could get their hands on this and have all the evidence they could ever want. And many of the names that they could want,” said Berger as John Hancock.

The first Governor of Massachusetts had strong ties to Worcester, including a residence on Lincoln Street. 

Hancock's trunk has been stored at the Worcester Historical Museum since 1895.