Rare Declaration copy found in UK archives

A volunteer cataloguing Royal Navy papers at The National Archives in London has uncovered a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence — the only known copy of its kind outside the United States.

The document, found at the archives in Kew, is one of 11 surviving copies printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, in July 1776 as news of American independence spread through the colonies. The BBC reported that volunteer Michael Scurr discovered it in February while cataloguing papers of Royal Navy captains from the American Revolutionary War. The Guardian reported that the discovery came in late May as Scurr worked through 18th-century Royal Navy correspondence that had not previously been recorded in detail.

Scurr said he felt “butterflies” after unfolding the paper and recognizing what it was. “I called over to my boss and said, ‘I think you need to come and have a look at this,’” he told the BBC. The Guardian quoted him describing the discovery as “a really thrilling moment” on what had begun as “just a boring old Thursday morning.”

The copy is from the so-called Exeter printing, produced between July 16 and 19, 1776, after the Declaration was first printed in Philadelphia on July 4. Graham Moore, a records specialist at The National Archives, said such broadsides “were designed to be printed quickly, distributed fast, and read and consumed by as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.”

“This is about news in 1776,” Moore told The Guardian.

The document’s survival is unusual because it was not intended to be kept. “After the original printing on 4 July, the news of the Declaration is travelling fast around North America and its being reprinted as it reaches each successive colony,” Moore told the BBC. “The copy we have is one of only 11 surviving from the first ones printed in New Hampshire.”

The copy reached British hands after the Royal Navy captured the American privateer Dalton in December 1776. The BBC reported that HMS Raisonable seized the ship off the coast of Portugal on Christmas Eve after a seven-hour pursuit. The Guardian described the capture as taking place off the coast of Spain that month.

The Dalton’s papers were seized, including its privateer commission, printed instructions from the Continental Congress and the Declaration. Other documents, including a commission personally signed by Continental Congress President John Hancock authorizing attacks on British vessels, were passed to the Admiralty Court, The Guardian reported. The Declaration was not. It was recorded only as “another document” and remained unnoticed in naval records for more than two centuries.

Moore told the BBC the document was found folded among the letters of Captain Thomas Fitzherbert. It was brought to Plymouth in January 1777 and later moved to Whitehall in London. He said it is the only known copy of the Declaration taken by military action.

Saul Nassé, chief executive of The National Archives and keeper of public records, called the find “an extraordinary discovery” and “a vanishingly rare surviving copy of the Declaration of Independence, found not in America, but here in the UK.” He told The Guardian it was “a powerful reminder that the history of the American Revolution is fundamentally transatlantic.”

The document has undergone conservation work to stabilize the paper and repair a slight tear. It will be displayed in the exhibition “Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story, 1763-1783” at The National Archives.

The archives already hold three official copies printed by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. About 200 Dunlap copies are believed to have been printed that night, and 26 are known to survive today.