{"id":670719,"date":"2026-07-03T00:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670719\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T00:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T00:07:11","slug":"vanishingly-rare-copy-of-us-declaration-of-independence-found-by-volunteer-in-uk-archives-national-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670719\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Vanishingly rare\u2019 copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives | National Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Michael Scurr, a volunteer at the National Archives<\/a> in Kew, west London, it was \u201cjust a boring old Thursday morning\u201d when he sat down in late May to catalogue a collection of documents from the British national collection that had never previously been recorded in detail.<\/p>\n

As he opened a volume of 18th-century Royal Navy correspondence, however, Scurr unfolded a document whose opening words he recognised. \u201cIn Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

What Scurr had found was a \u201cvanishingly rare\u201d copy of an early printing of the US Declaration of Independence, just weeks before this weekend\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a> of its signing. He turned to his supervisor, who was sitting opposite, and said: \u201cI think you should come and have a look at this.\u201d It was, he said, \u201ca really thrilling moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

The document is a copy of the so-called Exeter printing of the declaration, one of just 11 copies to survive and the only one known outside the US. What makes it particularly remarkable, according to Graham Moore, a records specialist at the National Archives, is the \u201camazingly complete story\u201d of how it came to be in the possession of the Royal Navy, and what that says about how news of the declaration spread as the new nation sought to assert its autonomy.<\/p>\n

The paper was printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, between 16 and 19 July 1776. Photograph: The National Archives<\/p>\n

The document was discovered among a collection of papers taken from an American privateer vessel called the Dalton, after it was captured by a British warship off the coast of Spain in December 1776. Though other significant papers were passed on to the Admiralty Court \u2013 including the privately owned ship\u2019s commission, personally signed by the Continental Congress president, John Hancock, to attack British vessels on behalf of the fledgling US \u2013 the declaration was not. Instead, it would be recorded only as \u201canother document\u201d and forgotten for more than two centuries in the naval archives.<\/p>\n

The modest sheet of paper was printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, between 16 and 19 July \u2013 the time taken for news to spread of the bold declaration first signed in Philadelphia on 4 July. These \u201cbroadsides\u201d, like those rattled off by printers in other major cities, \u201cwere designed to be printed quickly, distributed fast, and read and consumed by as many people as possible in as short a time as possible,\u201d said Moore. \u201cThis is about news in 1776.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the Dalton did not dock in Exeter, Moore said it was likely that Eleazer Johnson, the ship\u2019s captain, had bought a copy of the declaration in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the ship briefly stopped to pick up more crew.<\/p>\n

Johnson was a committed American: after his capture, he declared to a court in Plymouth, UK, that he was a citizen of the United States of America, still considered a treasonous statement by the crown. Amanda Bevan, the head of legal records, said she liked to imagine the captain had read the document aloud on deck. \u201cI have this nice image of Eleazar Johnson on the ship \u2026 potentially reading out the declaration of independence to his 120-man crew of diverse nations to say: \u2018This is why we\u2019re doing it, this is why we\u2019re putting our lives at risk, this is why we\u2019re heading out into the ocean to take our chances again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

American privateer ships had been commissioned by Congress \u201cto attack, seize and take the ships and other vessels belonging to the inhabitants of Great-Britain\u201d; in fact, the Dalton itself was the first American privateer to be captured in European waters.<\/p>\n

Thanks to other documents in the national collection and elsewhere, we know what happened next \u2013 including from the published diary of one of the sailors, Charles Herbert, available online<\/a>. The crew of 120 men \u2013 English, Irish, Scottish, French and Danish sailors as well as those declaring themselves American citizens \u2013 included one, Daniel Cottle, who is described in the muster book as being a black man. \u201cThis is not uncommon in North America,\u201d said Moore. \u201cIt is likely by his role on this privateering ship that he is a free black man in 1776. We do see free black people fighting on both sides of the revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the rest of the crew, Cottle was transferred to a guard ship and eventually taken to England, where he was held in the Old Mill prison in Plymouth. \u201cThat is really where we lose his story,\u201d said Moore. \u201cIt\u2019s possible that with more research we\u2019ll be able to follow him a bit further \u2013 it\u2019s likely that he came from Newburyport, Massachusetts, where the majority of the Dalton\u2019s crew come from. So there\u2019s definitely more to his story there, and I\u2019d love to uncover more of it if we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saul Nass\u00e9, the chief executive of the National Archives and keeper of public records, said the \u201cvanishingly rare\u201d document was \u201ca powerful reminder that the history of the American Revolution is fundamentally transatlantic\u201d.<\/p>\n

As well as its documentary importance, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s the story that makes this copy so important. Not only is it one of 11 in the world, it also has provenance. From a print shop in Exeter, New Hampshire, to a privateer at sea, to its capture, and eventually to being part of our state\u2019s archives. And that kind of provenance is exceptionally rare.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Michael Scurr, a volunteer at the National Archives in Kew, west London, it was \u201cjust a boring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-670719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}