William Hancock was the fourth son of James Hancock,cabinet maker of Marlborough,
Wiltshire (1753 -1821). Until recently, hardly anything was known of William
Hancock's life, other than that he was an upholsterer, and allegedly had made
the first set of inflatable rubber cushions for the re-built Houses of Parliament
between 1834 and 1840.
He was the brother of Thomas Hancock, the father of the rubber industry,
Walter Hancock the maker of the first reliable steam buses between 1825 and
1840, and Charles Hancock the animal artist and inventor of the submarine
telegraph cable.
He has recently been associated with a fine cabinet of English elm sent
to George IVth in 1825. Any further information on William (or James) Hancock
would be gratefully received.