EX-99.77B ACCT LTTR

Report of Independent Accountants

To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders of
Massachusetts Tax-Free Income Fund and
New York Tax-Free Income Fund


In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of John
Hancock Massachusetts Tax- Free Income Fund and John Hancock New York Tax-Free
Income Fund (the "Funds") for the year ended August 31, 2002, we considered
their internal control, including control activities for safeguarding
securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of
expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the
requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal control.

The management of the Funds is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments by
management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs of
controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to the
entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes that
are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.

Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may occur
and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal control to
future periods is subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of their design and
operation may deteriorate.

Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all matters
in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or more
of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the
risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving
internal control and its operation, including controls for safeguarding
securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
August 31, 2002.

This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Board of
Directors, management and the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not
intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these specified
parties.


October 11, 2002
2

2

EX-99.77Q3 CERT

CERTIFICATION
I, Maureen R. Ford, certify that:

1. I have reviewed this report on Form N-SAR of the John Hancock Tax-Exempt
Series Fund (the "registrant");

2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a
material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements
made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not
misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial information included in this report, and
the financial statements on which the financial information is based, fairly
present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations,
changes in net assets, and cash flows (if the financial statements are required
to include a statement of cash flows) of the registrant as of, and for, the
periods presented in this report;

4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for
establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in
rule 30a-2(c) under the Investment Company Act) for the registrant and have:

a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that material
information relating to the registrant is made known to us by others within
those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being
prepared;

b) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls
and procedures as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of this
report (the "Evaluation Date"); and c) presented in this report our conclusions
about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures based on our
evaluation as of the Evaluation Date;

5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our
most recent evaluation, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of
the registrant's board of trustees:

a) all significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls
which could adversely affect the registrant's ability to record, process,
summarize, and report financial data and have identified for the registrant's
auditors any material weaknesses in internal controls; and
b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal controls; and
6. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have indicated in this report
whether or not there were significant changes in internal controls or in other
factors that could significantly affect internal controls subsequent to the date
of our most recent evaluation, including any corrective actions with regard to
significant deficiencies and material weaknesses.





Date: _______________
_______________________
Maureen R. Ford
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer


CERTIFICATION
I, Richard A. Brown, certify that:

1. I have reviewed this report on Form N-SAR of the John Hancock Tax-Exempt
Series Fund (the "registrant");
2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a
material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements
made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not
misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3. Based on my knowledge, the financial information included in this report, and
the financial statements on which the financial information is based, fairly
present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations,
changes in net assets, and cash flows (if the financial statements are required
to include a statement of cash flows) of the registrant as of, and for, the
periods presented in this report;

4. The registrant's other certifying officer and I are responsible for
establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in
rule 30a-2(c) under the Investment Company Act) for the registrant and have:

a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that material
information relating to the registrant is made known to us by others within
those entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being
prepared;
b) evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls and
procedures as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of this report
(the "Evaluation Date"); and
c) presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the
disclosure controls and procedures based on our evaluation as of the Evaluation
Date;

5. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our
most recent evaluation, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of
the registrant's board of trustees:
a) all significant deficiencies in the design or operation of internal controls
which could adversely affect the registrant's ability to record, process,
summarize, and report financial data and have identified for the registrant's
auditors any material weaknesses in internal controls; and
b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal controls; and
6. The registrant's other certifying officer and I have indicated in this report
whether or not there were significant changes in internal controls or in other
factors that could significantly affect internal controls subsequent to the date
of our most recent evaluation, including any corrective actions with regard to
significant deficiencies and material weaknesses.




Date: _______________
_______________________
Richard A. Brown
Senior Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer