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Formation of E jncock County
West Florida came into the p jssession of the United States in
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1810, and the Mississippi coast was very promptly divided into two
districts, of which ,the western, known as "Viloxy" included the
territory between the Bay of Biloxi and Pearl River and "between the
thirty-first parallel’and the Gulf of Mexico* This section was
erected into a county, named Hancock, after John Hancock, president ...	''	f*/'	■? “ >-	‘	v	'	‘
of the Continental Congress, on December l^th, l8l2. The boundary
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-	is stated as follows in the act of the territorial legislature:
"All that-tract of country lying south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and west of the line running due north from the middle of the Bay of Bilcod: _to the thirty-first degree of north ..latitude and east 'of the Pearl River shall compose. a. county and^ shall be known by the name of
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Hancock."	'.	*	?	/	*	...	.s
The original extent has been reduced by subsequent acts of the state legislature to approximately one-fourth of the area stated. The present counties of Harrison, Btone and Pearl River have all been
carved out of the old district.
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There were a number;of acts redefining the line between Hancock and Jackson counties, evidently to reconcile the county boundaries with the survey trade after 1812; but these changes were mainly tech-
•	nical in character and of very minor significance.
Harrison County was the first to be separated from Hancock. On February 5th, l3lH, an act of the state legislature created the county.
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By an act of the'state legislature passed February 22, 1890, the northern part of Hancock was cut off to form Pearl River County...