Volunteer sorting old Royal Navy papers finds rare 1776 US Declaration of Independence copy

The copy of the 'Exeter Declaration' found at The National Archives.Photo credit: The National Archives A volunteer sorting old Royal Navy papers at The National Archives in London has uncovered a rare 1776 printing of the US Declaration of Independence, found among letters sent by a British captain after capturing an American privateer ship. The document is one of only 11 surviving copies printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, and is now the only known example outside the United States. Discovered in May 2026 by volunteer Michael Scurr while cataloguing Admiralty correspondence, the fragile broadside had travelled across the Atlantic as wartime evidence before resting quietly in a box of 18th-century naval letters for more than two centuries, according to The National Archives.A chance find in a box of captains’ lettersThe discovery came as part of the America 250 project, which is cataloguing Royal Navy admirals’ and captains’ letters from the American Revolutionary War to coincide with the 250th anniversary of US independence. Michael Scurr, a volunteer on the project, was working through a box of correspondence from Captain Thomas Fitzherbert of HMS Raisonable when he noticed a refe...