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The Sussex Declaration: Sussex's Secret Piece of American History
- 23 hours ago
- 3 min read
Tucked away in the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester is one of the rarest documents connected to American history anywhere in the world: the Sussex Declaration, one of only two known ceremonial parchment manuscript copies of the Declaration of Independence in existence. The other is held on permanent display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
On Friday 3 July, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, Jess Brown-Fuller MP visited the West Sussex Record Office to view the Sussex Declaration and hear from the team of archivists and historians who have worked to uncover its origins and story. Research suggests the document was held by Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, known in his lifetime as the "Radical Duke" for his outspoken support of the American colonists' cause and his reformist politics as a leading Whig.
The document was first identified as a find of major historical significance in 2016, when Harvard researchers Danielle Allen and Emily Sneff came across it while cataloguing known copies of the Declaration. What followed was a three-year international research effort involving Harvard, the British Library and the Library of Congress, culminating in a series of forensic scientific tests in 2017.
Multi-spectral imaging and X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed a partially erased date beneath the main heading, and the results pointed to a document created in the late eighteenth century, likely in New York or Philadelphia. Unlike the American original, the Sussex copy bears the names of the signatories written out by a clerk rather than their original signatures, and evidence suggests it once hung on a wall before eventually making its way into a Chichester solicitor's collection and, in 1956, into the Record Office itself.
The West Sussex Record Office, based in Chichester, holds one of the richest archival collections in the country, and the Sussex Declaration has become a centrepiece of its efforts to explore the county's links with America. In 2019, the Record Office was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation in New York to launch Transatlantic Ties, a three-year project uncovering the historical connections between America and West Sussex. The project's website makes archival material, teaching resources and research findings freely available to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
The document sits within a wider, often overlooked network of Sussex connections to the American Revolution, from Thomas Paine's formative years in nearby Lewes to the service of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot during the Revolutionary War.
Speaking after the visit, Jess said:
"It is remarkable that a document of such enormous significance to both American and Liberal political history has been sitting here in Chichester all along. Marking 250 years of American independence at the Record Office is a fitting way to celebrate the deep relationship between our two nations, that remains as important today as ever.
“It is a fitting historical footnote that a document connected to one of the Whig party's most radical figures should resurface in the county where he made his name, given the Whigs' direct lineage to today's Liberal Democrats.”
"I want to thank the team at the West Sussex Record Office for the incredible work they have done to research and preserve this document, and I would encourage anyone with an interest in this remarkable piece of shared history to come and see it for themselves."
The Sussex Declaration's national profile is set to grow further this year: from the middle of its run, it will travel to the British Museum as the centrepiece loan in Declaring Independence: USA 250, a display running from 30 June to 29 November exploring the interconnected diplomatic history of the Revolutionary War through objects including the Washington Peace Medal and a tomahawk gifted to Mohawk leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant).
