Rare copy of Declaration of Independence found by UK National Archives in papers of captured US ship

Michael Scurr has been volunteering at Britain’s National Archives for the last 11 years, spending his Thursday mornings painstakingly cataloging documents for the benefit of future researchers.Then one day last May the retired insurance executive made a discovery of his own while sifting through the letters of an 18th century Royal Navy captain.There, attached to a report on the capture of the American privateer Dalton on Christmas Eve 1776, was an enclosure identified only as “another paper.” Carefully unfolding the document, Scurr stopped when he saw the word “Declaration” printed across the top.“I thought, oh, right, OK, this is definitely a Declaration of Independence,’’ he told The Associated Press.“How exciting is this?’’Researchers at the National Archives have since identified the document as a rare early copy of America’s founding document, printed just days after the original was signed on July 4, 1776, to spread the news that 13 rebellious North American colonies had severed ties with Britain.It is one of just 11 original copies of the so-called Exeter printing of the declaration that are known to exist, and the only one identified outside the United States, the National Archives said on Thursday as it unveiled the find ahead of this weekend’s 250th anniversary of American independence.

This version was printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, July 16 to 19, 1776.But it isn’t just the age of the document that makes it important.It is also the fact that it was captured from a ship under the direction of the recently formed Continental Congress, with orders signed by its president, John Hancock, said Amanda Bevan, head of the National Archives’ project to catalog the correspondence of Royal Navy captains during the American Revolution.While the public has heard about the dreadful conditions faced by the Continental Army at places like Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, little attention has been given to the Americans who went to sea to ...