Historians at the UK National Archives in Kew, southwest London, have uncovered a rare printed copy of the American Declaration of Independence, dating from 1776. The document, a so-called Dunlap broadside, was seized by the Royal Navy from the privateer ship Dalton on Christmas Eve of that year, during the American Revolutionary War.
The discovery came during a cataloguing project focused on the papers of Royal Navy captains from the conflict. Graham Moore, curator of the Revolution 250 project at the National Archives, described the find as “exceptional” and “one of the rarest forms of the Declaration we know about.”
A Prize of War with a Known Provenance
What sets this copy apart from the other 25 known surviving Dunlap broadsides is its clear chain of custody. “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.
According to the National Archives, HMS Raisonable pursued the Dalton for seven hours off the coast of Portugal before capturing the vessel and bringing it back to Britain. The document was then likely filed among the admiralty records, where it remained unnoticed for nearly 250 years.
John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, produced approximately 200 copies of the Declaration in July 1776 for distribution across the Thirteen Colonies. Only 26 are known to survive today. The original engrossed and signed parchment resides in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Saul Nassé, chief executive of the National Archives, called the find “an extraordinary discovery” and “a vanishingly rare surviving copy of the Declaration of Independence, found not in America, but here in the UK.”
The timing is notable: the 250th anniversary of the Declaration’s signing falls in 2026. Several European institutions are marking the milestone. The Palace of Versailles, for instance, has opened a new gallery dedicated to Franco-American relations during the Revolutionary period. Meanwhile, Brussels hosted a lavish US Independence celebration amid local protests over park privatisation, as reported earlier.
The discovery also underscores the transatlantic dimensions of the American Revolution. British archives hold significant material from the conflict, including captured correspondence, prize lists, and naval logs. This broadside is a tangible link to the moment when news of the Declaration reached Europe and was intercepted by the very navy it defied.
The National Archives plans to display the document publicly later this year, offering a rare glimpse into a foundational text of the United States from a European perspective.
