Historic US document found in Scottish ancestral home sells for £3.2m

A signer's copy of the 1776 Declaration of Independence sold in the USA for $4,420,000 (£3,210,000)

A rare piece of founding American history has sold in the USA for $4,420,000 (£3,210,000) after being discovered in the attic of a Scottish ancestral home.

A signer's copy of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, one of only six known to still be in private hands, was uncovered by a Lyon & Turnbull expert.

It is the second highest price paid at auction for a copy of the declaration.

It quadruples the world record for a William J Stone declaration print.

The historic document, which has been unaccounted for for almost 180 years, was one of two copies presented to founding father Charles Carroll of Carrollton in 1824, a wealthy American and the first United States senator from the state of Maryland.

The declaration is understood to be one of only six known to still be in private hands

Carroll gave both of his copies to his grandson-in-law, John MacTavish (1787-1852), a Scottish-Canadian diplomat and businessman who served as British Consul to Maryland and married Carroll's granddaughter, Emily Caton.

One of the copies was given to Maryland Historical Society by MacTavish. He then copied Carroll's signature and inscription from that copy onto this second copy, adding a note of his own to explain.

Charles Carroll of Carrolton was an early advocate for independence of the Thirteen American Colonies from Great Britain and was to become the last survivor of the 56 signatories, dying in 1832, aged 96. Together the colonies formed the United States of America.

Pile of papers

Cathy Marsden, Lyon & Turnbull's rare books, manuscripts and maps specialist, who made the discovery, said: "I was looking through a pile of papers which had been brought down from the attic, amongst which was a folded up, vellum, document.

"When I got back to the office and started doing some research I became really excited as its significance became clearer.

"After extensive research we confirmed it was indeed one of the 201 copies made by William Stone, of which only 48 of them are known to still exist.

"Being able to identify to whom the copy belonged made it even more exciting and rare."

Lyon & Turnbull's sister auction house, Freeman's, sold the document in America.

The seller wishes to remain anonymous.