A volunteer sorting through naval correspondence at a London archive made one of the most remarkable documentary discoveries in years last May — a surviving early copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, concealed within British state records for more than two centuries.
Michael Scurr was working through a collection of 18th-century Royal Navy papers at the National Archives in Kew on what he described as “just a boring old Thursday morning” when he unfolded a document and immediately recognised its opening words. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America…” He turned straight to his supervisor. “I think you should come and have a look at this,” he said. It was, he later recalled, “a really thrilling moment.”
The timing of the find could hardly have been more poignant. It came just weeks before this weekend’s 250th anniversary of the declaration’s signing — and what Scurr had found turned out to be one of only 11 surviving copies of the so-called Exeter printing of the document, and the only one known to exist anywhere outside the United States.
Its rarity alone would make it significant. But it is the story of how it came to be sitting forgotten in British naval files that makes this discovery truly extraordinary.
The document was among papers seized from an American privateer vessel called the Dalton after it was captured by a British warship off the coast of Spain in December 1776. The Dalton holds its own place in history as the first American privateer ship to be captured in European waters. Other papers taken from the vessel — including its commission personally signed by Continental Congress president John Hancock, authorising it to attack British shipping — were formally passed to the Admiralty Court. The declaration, however, was catalogued simply as “another document” and then quietly vanished into the naval archive, where it would remain untouched for well over two centuries.
Graham Moore, a records specialist at the National Archives, explained that the copy had been printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, between 16 and 19 July 1776 — the time it took for news of the declaration, signed in Philadelphia on 4 July, to travel north and reach local printers. These so-called broadsides were rushed productions, designed for rapid mass circulation. “This is about news in 1776,” Moore 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.”
The Dalton did not call at Exeter itself, but Moore believes its captain, Eleazer Johnson, most likely picked up a copy during a brief stop in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the ship took on additional crew. Johnson was a man of deep conviction. After his capture, he stood before a court in Plymouth, England, and declared himself a citizen of the United States of America — still considered a treasonous statement by the British Crown.
Amanda Bevan, head of legal records at the National Archives, said she liked to picture Johnson sharing the declaration with his crew before sailing into battle. “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.'”
That crew of 120 was drawn from England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Denmark as well as those declaring themselves American citizens. Among them was a man named Daniel Cottle, recorded in the ship’s muster book as a black man. Moore said this was not unusual in North America at the time, and that Cottle was likely a free black man given his role aboard the vessel. After the Dalton’s capture, the crew were eventually transferred to the Old Mill prison in Plymouth. “That is really where we lose his story,” Moore said. “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 document as “a powerful reminder that the history of the American Revolution is fundamentally transatlantic.” He said what set this copy apart from pure rarity was the completeness of its journey. “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.”
