Volunteer archivist finds rare copy of the American Declaration of Independence in National Archives at Kew

One of 11 copies of the Exeter printing of the United States Declaration of Independence; National Archives

The only known copy outside America of the rare Exeter, New Hampshire printing

A volunteer archivist at the National Archives in Kew has discovered an extremely rare copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Michael Scurr, a retired insurance executive, has been spending Thursday mornings cataloguing documents at the Archive for the past eleven years. Earlier this year he was cataloguing the papers of Royal Navy captains from the American Revolutionary War and came across something he thought his manager should have a look at.

He had opened a piece of paper and realised he was looking at a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It turned out to be the only known example outside the US of 11 copies printed in Exeter, New Hampshire in July 1776.

It was, he said, “a really thrilling moment”.

The original ‘Dunlap Broadsides’ printed on the night of 4 July in Philadelphia were distributed to the colonies by horseback over the course of three weeks. In Exeter, New Hampshire, printmaker Robert Luist Fowle, the editor of the New Hampshire Gazette, printed the text both on the newspaper and as a separate broadside on 16 July 1776.

Ten copies were known to have survived, all of which are with the American Antiquarian Society and the Library of Congress, until Michael Scurr’ discovery in the archive at Kew turned up the eleventh copy.

Now on show to the public; National Archives

Found amongst the papers of a privateer captain whose ship was captured by the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War

The story of how it came to be in the hands of the National Archive is fascinating. During the American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) Royal Naval vessel HMS Raisonable captured an American ship, the Dalton, off the coast of Portugal after a seven-hour pursuit in December 1776.

The captured ship was brought back to Britain and the Captain’s papers seized. The Declaration was found folded amongst his letters.

Captain Eleazer Johnson, a privateer, had been acting on behalf of the recently formed Continental Congress, and his orders were signed by its president, John Hancock. Their mission was to disrupt British trade and enjoin battle with the British navy.

Finding a copy of the Declaration of Independence on board ship suggests how it might have been used, said Amanda Bevan, head of the National Archives’ project to catalogue the correspondence of Royal Navy captains during the American Revolution.

She believes Captain Johnson would have read out his orders, as was customary, and also the declaration itself.

“I have this nice image of Eleazar Johnson on the ship … potentially reading out the declaration of independence to his 120-man crew of diverse nations to say: ‘This is why we’re doing it, this is why we’re putting our lives at risk, this is why we’re heading out into the ocean to take our chances again’,” she told The Guardian.

The Dalton’s 120-man crew was imprisoned in Plymouth under harsh conditions.

Charles Hebert, who was just 19 when he was captured, described hunger, illness and repeated punishment in the journals he kept during more than two years of captivity before his release in a prisoner exchange.

Captain Johnson told a court in Plymouth he was a citizen of the United States of America. He was making a bold statement, as identifying himself as an American citizen in 1776 would have been considered treasonous.