UK finds lost US Declaration of Independence copy after 250 years

Volunteer uncovers 1776 Exeter printing in seized American privateer’s papers

Then one day last May the retired insurance executive made a discovery of his own while sifting through the letters of an 18th century Royal Navy captain.

As he opened a volume of 18th-century Royal Navy correspondence, however, Scurr unfolded a document whose opening words he recognised.

The early copy remained tucked away in Britain’s National Archives until a volunteer cataloging records from the American Revolutionary War came across it in May this year among the papers of Royal Navy captains.