July 1776 Copy of Declaration of Independence Discovered Outside US in Foreign Navy Captain’s Papers

Almost 250 years after an American ship carrying news of the Declaration of Independence was captured by a British warship, the copy of America’s founding principles it carried is making news.

The copy of the Declaration was found in Britain’s National Archives last May by volunteer Michael Scurr.

“I called over to my boss and said, ‘I think you need to come and have a look at this,’” he said, according to the BBC.

He had been cataloging the papers of Captain Thomas Fitzherbert, an 18th century Royal Navy captain whose ship, the HMS Raisonable, captured an American ship, the Dalton, off the Portuguese coast, according to the New York Post.

Rare copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives https://t.co/n11ikiNKI8

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 2, 2026

“I thought, oh, right, okay, this is definitely a Declaration of Independence,’’ he said. “How exciting is this?’’

The document was one of 11 existing copies of a printing of the document made in Exeter, New Hampshire, with the goal of putting the news abroad that the 13 colonies had become the United States of America.

The copy found in Britain was printed in Exeter between July 16 and July 19, 1776.

Amanda Bevan, head of the project documenting Royal Navy captains’ papers from the American Revolution, said the Dalton’s captain would have read the Declaration to the crew, along with his orders.

“They know why they’re fighting, but this puts it in a language which makes it greater than them,’’ Bevan said.

“They’re not fighting because they’re aggrieved in particular. They’re fighting for an ideal. And I think that just to find the declaration in a theater of war where people are committing themselves to fight for their country on the wide ocean is really something special,” she said.

The copy found on the 18-gun Dalton shows how American wanted the world to know what it had done, Matthew Skic, director of collections and exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, said.

“It’s not just a document, it’s an artifact,” he said.

“It’s a tangible connection to the past, because holding that piece of paper in the archivist’s hand today is a way to transport us back to 1776. The baton being passed, in a way,” he added.

He said that even after 250 years, there is more to learn about the Revolutionary era.

“Even though 250 years has gone by, we still do not know everything about the American Revolution, and there are still finds left to be discovered.”

Graham Moore of the National Archives told the BBC the find is “one of the rarest forms of the Declaration we know about,” adding that it was not meant to be preserved due to the intention to distribute it quickly.

“After the original printing on 4 July, the news of the Declaration is travelling fast around North America and it’s being reprinted as it reaches each successive colony,” he said.

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