A volunteer cataloguing dusty naval correspondence at the National Archives in Kew stumbled upon one of the rarest documents in American history — a surviving early copy of the US Declaration of Independence, hidden in the British state archives for more than two centuries.
Michael Scurr had been working through a volume of 18th-century Royal Navy papers on what he described as “just a boring old Thursday morning” in late May when he unfolded a sheet and recognised the opening words immediately. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America…” He turned to his supervisor and said: “I think you should come and have a look at this.” It was, he said, “a really thrilling moment.”
The discovery, made just weeks before this weekend’s 250th anniversary of the declaration’s signing, turns out to be one of only 11 surviving copies of the so-called Exeter printing — and the only one known to exist outside the United States.
What makes the find extraordinary is not just its rarity but the complete and remarkable chain of custody that explains how it came to be buried in British naval records. The document was among papers seized from an American privateer vessel called the Dalton, captured by a British warship off the coast of Spain in December 1776. Other significant documents from the ship — including its commission personally signed by Continental Congress president John Hancock — were passed to the Admiralty Court. The declaration, however, was logged only as “another document” and then forgotten for more than 240 years.
The copy had been printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, between 16 and 19 July 1776 — the time it took for news of the declaration, first signed in Philadelphia on 4 July, to travel north. Graham Moore, a records specialist at the National Archives, said these “broadsides” were produced rapidly for mass distribution. “This is about news in 1776,” he said. “They 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.”
Although the Dalton did not dock at Exeter itself, Moore believes its captain, Eleazer Johnson, likely purchased a copy during a brief stop in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to take on additional crew. Johnson was a committed American patriot — after his capture, he declared before a court in Plymouth that he was a citizen of the United States of America, a statement the British crown still considered treasonous.
Amanda Bevan, the head of legal records at the National Archives, said she imagined Johnson sharing the document with his crew of 120 men, drawn from England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Denmark as well as those declaring themselves American citizens. “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.'”
Among that crew was a man named Daniel Cottle, described in the ship’s muster book as a black man. Moore said this was not unusual for North America at the time, and that Cottle was likely a free black man given his role on the privateer vessel. The crew were eventually transferred to the Old Mill prison in Plymouth, England. “That is really where we lose his story,” Moore said. “It’s possible that with more research we’ll be able to follow him a bit further — it’s likely that he came from Newburyport, Massachusetts, where the majority of the Dalton’s crew come from. So there’s definitely more to his story there, and I’d love to uncover more of it if we can.”
Saul Nassé, chief executive of the National Archives and keeper of public records, described the find as “a powerful reminder that the history of the American Revolution is fundamentally transatlantic.” He said what elevated this particular copy above its extraordinary rarity was its provenance. “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’s archives. And that kind of provenance is exceptionally rare.”
