A county circuit court judge here ruled on February 22 that a Virginia man could claim title to a contested 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence that he had acquired privately for $475,000 in 2001 from a British rare book dealer. The collector, Richard Adams, had sued the state of Maine to gain “quiet title” to the print of the Declaration of Independence after learning that Maine would try to reclaim the document, which is also known as the Pownalborough Print. [See “State Treasure? Maine Seeks To Recover Copy Of Declaration Of Independence,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly, December 21, 2007]. The case was argued by Maine’s office of the attorney general before Judge R. Terrence Ney in January.
In a press release posted on its website, Maine’s archivist David Cheever expressed the state’s disappointment at the ruling, saying, “Our contention remains that Wiscasset’s copy of the Declaration is a public document, owned by the citizens of Wiscasset,” he said. “We intend to appeal the decision.”
The Virginia court’s ruling centers on Maine’s failure to prove that the contested document was in fact ordered to be kept by the town, was purposefully kept by the town and, as a result, wrongfully removed from the town’s possession. “In sum, there is simply no evidence that the Pownalborough Print was officially or formally kept by a town clerk of Pownalborough or Wiscasset,” said Ney in his analysis accompanying the court order. “Even if the town through some of its clerks retained the print for some period of time, Maine provided no evidence that such keeping was an official act, or that the print was thereafter wrongfully removed from the town’s possession.”
For its part, the state of Maine contends that because the broadside was ordered printed by the executive council of Massachusetts and ordered to be delivered to the town clerk, it was a public document. It further contends that the town of Wiscasset did not at any time authorize transfer of ownership of the document, which turned up in 1995 while a local auctioneer, Harold Moore, was evaluating for auction a boxful of family papers following the death of a Wiscasset woman who was a daughter of the town clerk who had served between 1886 and his death in 1929.
“This is not a case of ‘finders keepers, losers weepers,’ Cheever said in the state’s press release. “The town never relinquished its ownership of the Declaration, therefore, the document was not for sale then, and it is not for sale now.”
