The American privateer and the secret copy of the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration and the Dalton

On Christmas Eve 1776, during the early years of the American Revolutionary War between Britain and the newly formed United States of America, a sea battle was about to take place.

The American privateer (a private vessel commissioned by a government to attack enemy ships) Dalton was sailing near the coast of Portugal. The ship carried a commission from the United States’ Continental Congress, instructing the 20-gun brigantine (a popular form of two-masted sailing vessel) 'to attack, seize, and take the Ships and other Vessels belonging to the inhabitants of Great Britain'.

IN CONGRESS.

The DELEGATES of the UNITED COLONIES of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, TO ALL unto whom these presents shall come, send GREETING: KNOW YE,

THAT we have granted, and by these presents do grant Licence and Authority to Eleazer Johnson Mariner, Commander of the Brig called The Dalton of the Burthen of one hundred sixty Tons, or thereabouts, belonging to Tristram Dalton and Stephen Hooper of Newbury port in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay mounting twenty Carriage Guns, and navigated by one hundred twenty Men, to fit out and set forth the said brig in a warlike Manner, and by and with... Eleazer Johnson and the crew thereof, by Force of Arms, to attack, seize and take the Ships and other vessels belonging to the inhabitants of Great-Britain...

It was not to be. That same day, the Dalton was herself captured by the British Royal Navy 64-gun ship, HMS Raisonable, under captain Thomas Fitzherbert.

Among the Dalton’s papers, Captain Fitzherbert found something unexpected: a printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence. The Declaration, and its arguments for 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness', was issued earlier that year in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776. Now considered a founding document of the United States, it announced the thirteen rebellious American colonies’ intent to separate from Britain and form a new nation.

This copy of the US Declaration is one of a batch printed in Exeter, New Hampshire. Known as the ‘Exeter Declarations’, they were printed by one Robert Luist Fowle, between 16 and 19 July 1776. The copy was discovered at The National Archives in May 2026 by a volunteer working on our America 250 – Royal Navy Admirals’ and Captains’ Letters project. There are (now) only 11 known surviving copies of these ‘Exeter Declarations' and, prior to this discovery here in London, there were none known outside of the United States.

Collection blog

Finding a new copy of the US Declaration of Independence

How this rare copy of the Declaration was discovered by a volunteer at The National Archives.

An astonishing find, this previously unknown copy of the Declaration was located in the series ADM 1, which contains correspondence to and from the Admiralty. By researching Admiralty records and other series here at The National Archives, we can trace the journey and capture of the Dalton – the only copy of the US Declaration known to have been taken in military action.

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such principles and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The Dalton’s voyage

The Dalton had departed from Newburyport, Massachusetts on 15 October 1776. Her owners, Tristram Dalton and Stephen Hooper, appointed experienced mariners as officers: Eleazar Johnson Jr. (29) as captain, Anthony Knap (34) as first lieutenant, and John Buntin (40) as second lieutenant – all also from Newburyport.

First, the Dalton sailed 20 miles north of Portsmouth on the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire to pick up more crew. It was during that stopover that her company most likely acquired their copy of the Declaration, printed in nearby Exeter. We do not know which crew member had picked it up, although it was most likely held among the officers’ personal material – probably Captain Johnson’s, as it was found with the ship’s papers.

A month after departing North America, the Dalton was hunting for British prey on the other side of the Atlantic. There she encountered HMS Raisonable. Writing in the Raisonable’s log, Captain Fitzherbert recorded sighting 'a Sail to the Eastward' on 24 December 1776, near Cape Finisterre, Spain. Correctly suspecting her to be an 'American Cruizer', he gave chase. At 9pm that Christmas Eve, after a seven-hour cat-and-mouse pursuit, the Raisonable finally 'fired three Shot at her and brought her to'.

• From our collection

  ADM 1/1790

  Title

  Correspondence, papers and letters from captains with surnames 'F'

  Date

  1776–1779

The 64-gun Raisonable was a third-rate ship of the line: a formidable category of Royal Navy vessel typically featuring two decks, up to 80 guns, and over 500 crew members. Her far smaller target surrendered without a fight. The Dalton’s crew identified themselves as Americans, and Fitzherbert recorded the capture of an American brigantine in his log, 'mounting Twenty Carriage Guns and Twenty Swivels with 120 Men, belonging to Newbury Port New England'.

A prized Declaration

Fitzherbert took the Dalton’s crew as prisoners. He then ordered one of his lieutenants, Paul Brustis, to bring the Dalton herself, along with her three senior officers and her ship’s papers, into Plymouth. They arrived on 13 January 1777 to begin the process of being judged as a prize – an enemy ship captured in wartime.

Prize-taking, by both naval and privateering vessels, was a common practice in early modern warfare. Privateers like the Dalton formed the backbone of the United States’ early naval forces. By commissioning captains like Johnson to take British prizes, the rebel Continental Congress aimed to exert economic pressure on Britain. In return, British attempts to blockade American ports and capture rebel shipping were designed to isolate the Thirteen Colonies.

The legal proceedings required to declare the Dalton 'good prize' generated a lot of paperwork. Captors were required to seize and retain all documents found aboard a ship to determine whether it belonged to an enemy. The court itself then generated more paperwork, including testimonies by the captured ship’s crew. We can learn more about the Dalton and its crew from these records, held at The National Archives, which have recently been catalogued as part of the Prize Papers Project – our 20-year collaboration with the University of Oldenburg to catalogue and digitise papers taken from ships captured by British vessels between 1652 and 1815.

• From our collection

  HCA 32/302/4

  Title

  High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Dalton of Newburyport

  Date

  24 December 1776

When questioned in Plymouth, the Dalton’s captain boldly declared 'that he is a Subject to the United States of America'. He confirmed that he was operating under 'a Commission of War from the said United States granted by them and signed by John Hancock, President [of the Continental Congress]' to attack British shipping.

On this basis, the Dalton was condemned as 'good prize' for 'belonging to the Inhabitants of the aforesaid Rebellious Colonies'. Despite the United States Declaration of Independence earlier that year, Britain did not yet recognise the American rebels as a sovereign nation. However, Parliament had passed the Prohibitory Act in 1775, which effectively outlawed all trade with the rebel colonies. The terms of that Act allowed naval commanders like Fitzherbert to prey on any American ships at sea that they could find.

Paul Brustis, first lieutenant on the Raisonable and now acting prize-captain aboard the Dalton, swore that the only papers found aboard the prize ship were her commission, and the printed instructions issued by the rebel Congress to all American privateers. Thanks to the discovery of the Declaration in ADM 1, we now know that this was not true. Instead of immediately handing in all the papers, Captain Fitzherbert had copies made of the Dalton’s commission and instructions, which he sent immediately to the Admiralty Secretary, Philip Stephens, in Whitehall, London. Alongside it was a small note about signals and 'another paper'. That 'other paper' was the US Declaration of Independence.

Captors and captivity

Although all embarked in New England, the Dalton’s crew hailed from various origins – and some of them were even English. Johnson’s deposition described:

Mixed crews were fairly common at the time, but the dynamic between the 'English' crew and those who now identified as US citizens may have been interesting.

When taken by the Raisonable, the captured crew were entered on the British ship’s muster books to account for the expenditure required in feeding them. This document, held at The National Archives, gives us the names of all 120 men, and offers a few fascinating details. For example one man, Daniel Cottle, was described as 'Black' – numbering him amongst the mixture of free-born and formerly-enslaved Black people who fought on each side of the American Revolutionary War.

19-year-old Charles Herbert, of Newburyport, was another sailor aboard the Dalton. In his diary, he described his experience of capture and subsequent imprisonment. The British officers assured the Dalton’s crew that their belongings would be returned shortly – but Herbert didn’t trust them:

Herbert and the rest of the Dalton’s crew were imprisoned aboard HMS Belleisle, a guard ship in Plymouth harbour. They were later transferred to the Old Mill Prison. By the end of 1779, the Old Mill held nearly 300 American prisoners.

Herbert, Captain Johnson, and his comrades undertook several daring escape attempts. In December 1778, two years after the Dalton’s capture, he attempted escape by an elaborate tunnel 'dug down by the side of the prison, about nine feet perpendicular, and from thence it is dug about fifteen feet under ground, across a road.' He continued:

These escape attempts came to nothing, but by 1780 the Dalton’s crew were gradually being released. Many returned to Newburyport to tell their story.

Herbert and the 300 other rebel sailors at the Old Mill were just a tiny fraction of the total prisoners held during the American Revolutionary War. As the conflict dragged on and resources became strained, many prisoners suffered from harsh treatment, lack of provision, and risk of disease.

'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'

The story of the Dalton appears simple on the surface – a group of resolute New England rebels, crossing an ocean to fight the British for the 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence they carried with them.

By singling out the Declaration for immediate dispatch to Whitehall, against proper prize procedure, Captain Fitzherbert apparently acknowledged the document’s importance – and the interest of finding a copy at sea near Lisbon, an ocean away from where it was printed.

Whilst that piece of paper had its own remarkable journey, further documents here at The National Archives offer another engaging story – that of the Dalton’s crew. The English, Irish, Scottish, French and Danish people aboard, as well as the presence of free Black sailors, indicate a diverse company. Some of them were even voluntarily attacking the shipping of their own British nation, spurred on by the United States’ new independent status. As the Declaration sailed the seas in 1776, it began to change the world around it – and the lives of those who encountered it.

Read more

• Read about the discovery of the 'Exeter Declaration' at The National Archives
• Find out more about the Dalton's crew and their experiences on the website of The Custom House Maritime Museum, in Newburyport.

Exhibition

Revolution 250: America's Independence Story 1763–1783

Find out more about this momentous period in British American history in our exhibition Revolution 250 (24 June to 29 November 2026).