Richard Heaton's Newspapers

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The first Printed Copy in Great Britain of the Declaration of Independence
and an important report printed at Dublin Castle in 1798


I have long had an interest in historic newspapers and printed ephemera and have built up an extensive collection local and national British and Irish newspapers with particular focus on 1750's through to 1870's. Below I have added two examples to download. Possibly the most important newspaper within my collection was published in August 1776. Under the heading "Advices from America" the London Chronicle printed "A Declaration of by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress Assembled." Reading it still causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up ! And I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have.

"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; and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ..."


The second document is one of a series of documents printed at Dublin Castle in 1798 - a small collection of which are available free to download at my other site Last Chance to Read and give a great insight (as some have handwritten notes) into such a critical year in Irish history.

DeclMorning Post 1779



Please feel free to make use the photographs of these documents for your own personal non commercial local/family history projects.
Please also note, you may not use or publish material from this site for commercial purposes without prior written permission from me and the photographs are the copyright of Richard Heaton.

Declaration of Independence
Dublin Castle 1798
Finally the photographs are displayed in pdf and so you will need to download a free copy of Adobe Reader or similar program to access the files.