2 hours ago Following restoration works, the transcript volition beryllium displayed successful the archives' accumulation connected the way to American independence, which opened past month.
Saul Nassé, main enforcement of The National Archives, praised the find arsenic "an bonzer discovery".
He added: "It's a vanishingly uncommon surviving transcript of the Declaration of Independence, recovered not successful America, but present successful the UK."
The papers was seized by the Royal Navy connected Christmas Eve 1776 erstwhile the HMS Raisonable captured an American ship, the Dalton, disconnected the seashore of Portugal pursuing a seven-hour pursuit.
Dr Graham Moore from The National Archives said the find is "one of the rarest forms of the Declaration we cognize about", adding that it was not meant to beryllium preserved owed to the volition to administer it quickly.
"After the archetypal printing connected 4 July, the quality of the Declaration is travelling accelerated astir North America and its being reprinted arsenic it reaches each successive colony," helium told BBC News.
"The transcript we person is 1 of lone 11 surviving from the archetypal ones printed successful New Hampshire."
English (US)·