Acquisition of a 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence once in Wiscasset’s possession depends now on a Virginia Supreme Court decision.
The court took up the case last week with Maine Asst. Atty. Gen. Thomas Knowlton presenting the state’s case and a decision is expected to be handed down later this year.
“We’re hopeful and optimistic that the Virginia Supreme Court will rule in our favor,” Knowlton said Tuesday.
Knowlton went to the Richmond court armed with two main laws undergirding his arguments; a common law, which judges issue; and, a state statute, which define what a public document is.
“We think we made it clear it (the copy) falls within the definition of a public document,” he said.
Edmond Bridge, the town clerk at the time of the town’s acquisition of the historic document, entered the town’s possession in the record on Nov. 10, 1776.
For years no one in the community was aware of the document until is showed up in 1994 in the attic of the late Town Clerk Sol Holbrook’s daughter’s home on Middle Street, only 75 yards from Holbrook’s house on Main Street.
Holbrook died in office in 1929 in an age when town clerks did business for the town from their homes.
In his brief, Knowlton stated the print was found in the Middle Street home with no evidence Holbrook’s daughter had acquired it lawfully.
“If it’s mislaid or not in the town’s consciousness, it doesn’t mean the town doesn’t own it,” he said. “It takes a town act to divest itself of property.”
Furthermore, he stated in court, regardless of whether the print meets the definition of a public record, the town owned the print.
The plaintiff’s argument was he claimed ownership of the document through purchase, but Knowlton argued though he, Richard L. Adams Jr. of Fairfax, Va., is the bona fide purchaser, rules do not protect him.
“We believe he has to show more than he owns it,” he said. “He has to prove he has a legal right to it.”
In his argument, Knowlton said, “The law of Maine, not Virginia, governs the issue of whether Mr. Adams is a good-faith purchaser for value who acquired a valid title to the Pownalborough Print (the ‘print’).”
For several years the state has been persistent in its pursuit to acquire the broadside copy, which was printed in Salem, Mass., which Knowlton strongly holds still belongs to the Town of Wiscasset regardless of intervening sales of the print.
“It is undisputed that the town did not assent to the sale of its print,” he said in his brief. “Thus, Mr. Adams did not buy the print from someone with ‘voidable’ title.”
The 19th Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia ruled a year ago the holder of the copy originally found in the Middle Street home in 1994 can retain quiet title of the historic document.
Adams filed suit with the court for quiet title to the print on the basis that he is a bona fide purchaser for value. Adams purchased it from a rare book dealer at auction in London, England for $475,000.
The circuit court decision, however, did not end the extensive search and subsequent legal battle the State of Maine initiated in 2004 on behalf of Wiscasset and its predecessor, Pownalborough, based on its claim that the document is an official town record of Wiscasset and should be in its possession.
Both the Maine Archives and state Attorney General’s Office conducted an investigation in an attempt to retrieve the precious item considered in good condition.
Few people are aware that a resident of Wiscasset in the 1700s, Matthew Thornton, was one of the signers of the original Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia making the document that much more valuable as a historic artifact for the Town of Wiscasset.
The leverage for its return has been a state statute, which prohibits the sale of any permanent public document.
“Anything before 1900 would be considered a permanent document,” state archivist James Henderson said a few years ago.
Copies of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were distributed to the churches in each community. The minister then read the copy from the pulpit making people aware of the intentions of the colonial leaders, according to Henderson.
In some cases, people read it in the town square. There were a few copies printed in Philadelphia, which are extremely valuable, one of them selling for as much as $8 million, according to Nicholas Noyes, head of the Maine Historical Society.
The Massachusetts copies were printed in Salem, Mass. for the rest of the colony, since at that time there were no printing presses in Maine.
Apparently a past town clerk had the copy at home, since many towns had no local office and the town clerk kept the records. Upon resignation from office, the town clerk was supposed to have turned over all town records to the incoming town clerk.
In Wiscasset’s case, the document became a part of the estate either known or unknown to the distributors of the estate. The most recent presumed location before London was New York City.
The town could in the future decide to display it appropriately in the community, which is Wiscasset’s plan if the Attorney General’s Office is able to acquire it. The Lincoln County Museum has made known its desire to display it.
The state a few years ago planned to store the document at the Maine Archives in a high security and environmental vault and possibly taken to the town for special community events for public viewing.
The history of the famous copy all began when the Executive Council of Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered copies to be printed and distributed throughout the colony on July 17, 1776, including what is now Maine. Ministers were to read it to their congregations, then to the town and district clerks, where it was to be recorded in the town’s or district’s books, “to remain as a perpetual memorial thereof.”
Following the order, Ezekiel Russell, a private Salem printer, printed about 250 broadsides for distribution in 187 towns in the colony, including Pownalborough, which was changed to Wiscasset in 1802.
“The State of Maine introduced no evidence that any applicable statute in effect in 1776 required a state or town to retain broadsides generally or the Pownalborough print specifically.
In fact, the Order printed on the Pownalborough print only requires it be read by the ministers of each parish and then delivered to the town clerks so that the clerks could record the words into the town books,” the court stated.
The court also ruled out Maine’s reliance on a 1774 Order providing for the safe keeping of books and records of original proprietors of lands when incorporated into towns or districts.
According to historical records, the Rev. Thomas Moore in Pownalborough would have been the first recipient of the disputed copy. Edmund Bridge, the town clerk then, recorded the words of the Declaration of Independence handwritten in the official town book on Nov. 10, 1776.
In May 1995, Harold Moore, an auctioneer, found the Pownalborough copy in the Middle Street duplex home of the late Anna Plumstead and her sister, Mildred Holbrook, both daughters of Sol Holbrook, a Wiscasset town clerk from 1886-1929.
At an estate auction on May 21, 1995 in Byfield, Mass., Moore sold the print to David O’Neal, who bought it for $77,000 in partnership with Seth Keller of Keller Historical Documents, Inc.
Later Simon Finch, a rare book dealer in London, England purchased it for $300,000 and then sold it Adams for $475,000.
The circuit court reasoned under Virginia law, Maine as the party not possessing the copy had to bear the burden of proof that the print was “converted” from its rightful owner.
The copy found in Wiscasset was one of 34 Maine towns that received them, distributed to the churches and read in public squares. It has notations on the back of it attesting to its origin as the original copy Wiscasset had before its sale at auction in 1995.
The state Attorney General received a tip that the copy was in London, but the town had no record of the document’s existence.