While researching town records, staff at the Clerk’s Office in the town of Wells, Maine, recently found a handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence. 

After the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, printed copies of the document were distributed around the colonies. These copies were made by Philadelphia printer John Dunlap of Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, and only 26 of the Dunlap broadsides survived, according to the National Archives.

The Massachusetts Council (Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820) ordered that the Declaration would be read aloud and then delivered to each town clerk. The clerks were then instructed to record it in the town’s official records book. 

“The Wells Town Record Book contains both the Declaration and those original instructions, which is an incredible connection to one of the most significant moments in American history! The record has been preserved in the Town Clerk’s archives 250 years after it was originally written as an incredible piece of Wells’ history,” the town wrote in a Facebook post.

This particular copy was recorded in the Wells Town Record Book in July 1776 by Town Clerk Nathaniel Wells. 

According to WMTW, Maine State Archives has two copies of the Declaration of Independence. Both broadsides were printed by a Salem, Massachusetts, printer named Ezekiel Russell. The Massachusetts assembly ordered Russell to print a copy of the Declaration that would be sent to Christian ministers (of all denominations) throughout the state. The ministers were then required to read the document to their congregations, “on the first Lord’s-Day after they shall have received it.” 

Several hundred Russell broadsides were printed and disseminated in July 1776, and only about 12 to 21 copies are known to still exist today.

 

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