LONDON — A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence lost for 250 years has been discovered in London, where it is now the only known example of its kind outside the United States.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.Printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, just days after the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, the document was intended to spread news of American independence throughout the American colonies.The early copy remained tucked away in Britain’s National Archives until a volunteer cataloging records from the American Revolutionary War came across it in May this year among the papers of Royal Navy captains.Only 11 copies of the so-called Exeter printing are known to survive, and until this discovery, none had been found outside the United States, Britain’s National Archives said in a press release Thursday.The copy of the 'Exeter Declaration' found at The National Archives.The National ArchivesThe Declaration was among a collection of papers seized by the Royal Navy in December 1776, after it captured the American privateer vessel the Dalton, it said.“It was an amazing addition to the story of the Dalton and the many other privateers that fought the British at sea,” Amanda Bevan, who leads the National Archives’ project cataloging Royal Navy correspondence from the American Revolution, told NBC News in an email Friday.Privateers were privately owned ships authorized by the Continental Congress to attack British merchant vessels, disrupting trade and military supply lines during the Revolutionary War.“But the presence of the Declaration on the Dalton made it clear that they were doing this in the service of an ideal,” Bevan said.The seized papers also included the Dalton’s commission, which granted the ship permission from Continental Congress to attack British vessels, and other official orders explaining the rules of warfare for privateers.Bevan said it was common fo...