Wiscasset, state lose; Declaration of Independence to stay in Virginia
Paula Gibbs
Editor
A Virginia Circuit Court has ruled against the state of Maine in its efforts
to bring a copy of the Declaration of Independence back to the town of
Wiscasset.
In July of 1776, the Executive Council of Massachusetts ordered that copies
of the Declaration of Independence be printed and sent out to ministers to
read to their congregations as a means of informing the citizens of the
intentions of the 13 colonies to separate from England. The instructions
were to then deliver them to the town or district clerks to be recorded in
their respective town or district books.
One of those declarations was sent to Wiscasset, or more accurately, to
Pownalborough, as it was then called - that's Pownalborough, Massachusetts,
since Maine would not become a state until 1820.
These copies of the Declaration of Independence were printed as
"broadsides," a term used in colonial days that described government
announcements, or documents, and in some cases, advertisements. Since the
broadsides were printed by Ezekiel Russell, a printer in Salem, they are
sometimes referred to as "the Salem broadsides."
Between 1776 and 1996, 39 different people served as the town clerk of
Pownalborough and Wiscasset, according to court documents. In May of 1995,
Harold Moore, an auctioneer, found the Pownalborough broadside in the attic
of a home on Middle Street in Wiscasset. The last owner, Anna Plumstead, had
died in 1994. She had lived there with her sister, Mildred Holbrook, who
died in 1991. Sol Holbrook, their father, had been the Wiscasset town clerk
from 1886 until his death in 1929.
The Pownalborough Print, as it came to be called, was subsequently sold by
Moore at an auction in Byfield, Mass. the same year for $77,000 to David
O'Neal, in partnership with Seth Kaller of Kaller Historical Documents, Inc.
During the recent court case, Kaller testified that he advertised the
Pownalborough print in New York City, Macy's Harold Square, at Wall Street
Rarities, and on his website, for several years.
In December of 2001 Kaller sold the print to Simon Finch, a rare book dealer
in London, for $390,000. Finch then sold it to Virginia resident Richard L.
Adams, Jr. for $475,000, according to court documents.
According to a story in the New York Times last year, the state of Maine was
told of the existence of the print by someone who wished to remain
anonymous. In 2004 the state, according to court documents, "Proceeding on
behalf of the town of Wiscasset and its predecessor, Pownalborough, sought
to recover the Pownalborough Print, asserting it to be an official town
record of Wiscasset. Mr. Adams filed this suit to quiet [settle] title to
the print on the basis that he is a bona fide purchaser for value."
Several factors hurt Maine's case. One was the testimony from Maine's own
expert witness, Albert H. Whitaker, Jr. who said the "broadsides were not
typically kept." The court found that Maine had not proved its public record
statute applied in this case, and even if it did, the statute defines public
records as "received and maintained" by a municipality.
"Whether the Pownalborough Print was `maintained' by Pownalborough or
Wiscasset has not been conclusively established here," the court said.
Maine tried to prove that the print was kept by the town clerk because of
the manner in which it was folded, the "docketing" on the back of the print,
and the fact that Sol Holbrook was the town clerk and the print was found in
his daughter's attic. Specialists in colonial era documents from Sotheby's
testified that they had seen between 80 and 100 broadsides of the
Declaration of Independence, and that all of them were folded because of the
odd size of the paper, but not necessarily because they were kept by town
clerks. Another expert witness testified that "anyone could have made the
docketing entries, and that one docketing struck him as incorrect because it
identified it as a `warrant,' when in fact, it was not a warrant."
Maine argued that because the Pownalborough Print was not one of the many
town documents recorded in the town book, "it must have been wrongfully
removed."
But the court found that such records of documents - "an index, in effect of
what was retained - were presumably passed from clerk to clerk. Any clerk
doing an inventory of the town records would have known which records were
missing by looking at the town book. If the original print was to be
retained as an official town record, then, at some point, some clerk
receiving the book without also receiving the broadside would have realized
that it was missing. Yet, Maine presented no evidence that any town clerk
ever realized the Pownalborough Print was not among the town records, and,
as a result, sought it out. The print was never believed `missing' until
Maine learned of its sale."
Maine tried to prove ownership because it was found in the attic of town
clerk Sol Holbrook's daughter. However, the court said since Sol Holbrook
never lived in the house where the print was found, there was no evidence
this was true.
And, even if Sol Holbrook had once had it in his possession, the court said,
"It still begs the ultimate question. whether Sol Holbrook gave to someone a
town record as opposed to a discarded broadside."
One of the witnesses testified that of the approximately 200 Salem
broadsides printed, he knew of only 15 still in existence.
"The vast majority of these have been privately transferred from owner to
owner," the court said.
The ruling in the case of Richard L. Adams, Jr. v. the State of Maine, was
handed down on Feb. 22, 2008. Wiscasset Town Manager Arthur Faucher provided
a copy to the newspaper, which was sent to him by Maine's Deputy Attorney
General William R. Stokes. Faucher said he wasn't sure whether the state
plans to appeal it. Efforts to reach Stokes Tuesday were unsuccessful.