The document is one of only 11 known copies of the so-called Exeter printing of the Declaration of Independence. Photo courtesy the British National Archives
July 3 (UPI) — A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence printed in 1776 has been found in London, making it the only known example of the so-called Exeter printing to exist outside the United States, the British National Archives announced Friday.
The document is one of only 11 known copies of the Declaration of Independence to be printed in Exeter, N.H., in the days after it was formally adopted July 4, 1776. It was printed between July 16 and 19, 1776, with the purpose of spreading the news of independence across the colonies.
Graham Moore, the curator of the National Archives’ Revolution 250 exhibit, said the document is so rare because it wasn’t printed to be preserved but to be distributed quickly and widely.
The document in question was seized among papers aboard the American ship Dalton by Britain’s navy on Christmas Eve in 1776, the National Archives said in a release.
The British navy’s HMS Raisonable pursued the Dalton for 7 hours off the coast of Portugal before it was captured and taken to Britain.
“Listed at the time simply as ‘another paper,’ it has now been identified as a contemporary printing of the Declaration,” the release said.
Workers at the National Archives made the discovery in May while working on cataloging documents from the American Revolution to mark the 250th anniversary.
“What makes this discovery even more exceptional is that, as the only known copy taken by military action, we know much more about it — thanks to the bureaucratic processes of war,” Moore said.
“Evidence taken from captured ships was preserved as part of Admiralty court proceedings, and we hold those records at The National Archives. So we can present an unusually rich backstory that most surviving declarations do not have.”
