UK finds lost US Declaration of Independence copy after 250 years

{"text":[[{"start":8.45,"text":"A rare copy of the US Declaration of Independence lay in UK government records for nearly 250 years until a volunteer archivist spotted it in May this year, the body in charge of British official records has said."}],[{"start":21.75,"text":"The National Archives said the unearthed document — trigger for the US war of independence — was only the 11th known survivor of a run of copies printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, between July 16 and 19 1776, about two weeks after the declaration in Philadelphia on July 4 that year."}],[{"start":40.7,"text":"The National Archives this week for the first time showed journalists the carefully conserved document ahead of the declaration’s 250th anniversary on Saturday. The most famous passage — declaring that all men are created equal and have a right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — remained clearly legible."}],[{"start":61.050000000000004,"text":"The declaration was among a cache of papers seized by sailors from the Royal Navy vessel Raisonable on December 24 1776, when it captured the US vessel Dalton off Cape Finisterre, in north-west Spain. The Dalton was a privateer — a privately owned ship permitted to act on behalf of the US government."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":82.30000000000001,"text":"Amanda Bevan, head of legal records at the National Archives, said Thomas Fitzherbert, captain of the Raisonable, might have sent the document to the navy’s Admiralty headquarters regarding it as useful new information."}],[{"start":95.60000000000001,"text":"The Dalton set sail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire — where Captain Eleazer Johnson probably purchased his copy of the declaration — in November 1776."}],[{"start":106.35000000000001,"text":"The Dalton was the first American privateer captured during the war in European waters and hence the first taken to a British port after capture, rather than to British-held New York."}],[{"start":116.85000000000001,"text":"“There’s no way necessarily that Captain Fitzherbert would know that the Admiralty had seen a copy,” Bevan said of the declaration. “[He’s] sending back information that [he thinks] it’s important for the Admiralty to know.”"}],[{"start":128.4,"text":"The declaration was found with a copy of the rules of engagement for US ships and a commission for the Dalton to act on the US’s behalf, personally signed by John Hancock, a signatory of the independence declaration."}],[{"start":141.65,"text":"However, after being sent to London, the declaration seems to have lain undiscovered until Michael Scurr, a volunteer working on a National Archives project to catalogue archives from the period, discovered it this May."}],[{"start":154.65,"text":"The archives have made a particular effort to catalogue papers from the revolutionary war era in the run-up to the 250th anniversary."}],[{"start":162.6,"text":"Scurr said he started to look for further papers after reading a letter in the archives from Fitzherbert to the Admiralty mentioning “enclosures”."}],[{"start":171.79999999999998,"text":"“I found this folded sheet and there it was,” Scurr said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”"}],[{"start":177.79999999999998,"text":"While documents from a number of early printings of the declaration survive, archivists know far more about the newly discovered copy than others because the Dalton’s capture was reported to the Admiralty Court in London."}],[{"start":189.89999999999998,"text":"Archivists said that while some of the Dalton’s records went to the court, the declaration of independence was, unusually, retained among Fitzherbert’s papers, possibly because he regarded it as especially significant."}],[{"start":202.99999999999997,"text":"Graham Moore, a National Archives historian, said the declaration was a “very rare find”."}],[{"start":209.69999999999996,"text":"“There are very small numbers for all the different early printings,” Moore said."}],[{"start":214.09999999999997,"text":"Staff at the National Archives intend, after further conservation work, to add the newly discovered papers to their current Revolution 250 exhibition of papers relating to the US’s war of independence from the UK."}],[{"start":227.84999999999997,"text":"The exhibition includes a rare copy of the Dunlap Broadside — a series of copies of the declaration printed in Philadelphia on the night of July 4 1776."}],[{"start":238.19999999999996,"text":"They have not yet set a date for the new material to go on display."}],[{"start":252.44999999999996,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783068248_5409.mp3"}