Background
Hull was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England in 1624. He was the son of Elizabeth Storer and Robert Hull, who in 1635 came with their children from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, to Boston in New England.
merchant silversmith mintmaster
Hull was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England in 1624. He was the son of Elizabeth Storer and Robert Hull, who in 1635 came with their children from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, to Boston in New England.
John Hull was sent to the school of Philemon Pormort, opened in 1635. After a time he was kept at home to help his father with the farming until, as he wrote in his diaries, "I fell to learning (by the help of my brother) and to practice the trade of goldsmith. "
John Hull's diaries reveal his careful thoroughness in business, his close orthodoxy and conservatism as a church member, his important part in the affairs of the colony. The earliest diary record of public service is that of his election as corporal in the militia.
In 1652 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, suffering under the disabilities of trade carried on in barter and in coin – often counterfeit – of various nations, decided to set up a mint and put out coin of standard fineness. "They made choice of me for that employment, " wrote Hull; "and I chose my friend, Robert Sanderson, to be my partner, to which the Court consented. " Hull was to have one shilling for each twenty coined. The design chosen was that of a tree surrounded by a double ring and an inscription. Though the willow tree and the oak tree were both represented in the early coinage, it is the pine tree, adopted in 1662, by which the Boston or Bay shillings are best known. Hull and his partner also coined two-, three-, and sixpences.
In 1654 Hull was ensign of the South Military Company; in 1657 one of the seven selectmen of Boston, in which capacity he served for several years; in 1658 town treasurer; and in 1660 a member of the Artillery Company, and later ensign of this organization, lieutenant, and captain. He served many times as deputy to the General Court. He helped found the Old South Church. He became "one of the Committee for the War and also Treasurer for the War" in 1675, and in 1676 he noted that he was "chosen by the General Court to be the Country Treasurer. " He was released from this office in 1680 when he was elected one of the governor's assistants.
He was one of the leading merchants in the colonies, marketing furs and other colonial products in England, the West Indies, and France and importing sugar, cocoa, tobacco, and molasses into Massachusetts. He was also interested in a number of land projects. His wealth enabled him to be most useful as a banker to the struggling colony, to which he occasionally advanced money from his own pocket. In addition to his many other activities he continued to practise his craft, and today his name survives chiefly in the pieces of silver still preserved and bearing his mark, surprisingly lovely monuments to the austere old Puritan. His mark consisted of crude initials with a fleur-de-lys in a heart below or with a rose above in superimposed circles. Some pieces bear both Hull's mark and that of his partner, Sanderson.
In his twenty-third year he married Judith Quincy. Of his children only one, Hannah, survived him. She was married in her eighteenth year to Samuel Sewall (later Judge Sewall) and even at the time of her marriage her father's prosperity was such that the romantic folk-tale grew up that her dowry had been her weight in pinetree shillings.