How many copies of the Declaration of Independence were made? What did King George III do with his copy?

Question

If the original is in the National Archives, what was sent to England? Did John Hancock & his boys sign each copy? One would think that a clerk in England somewhere filed a document as ground-shattering as this.

Answer 1

The Continental Congress never sent a copy
directly to King George, but rather simply published the Declaration and assumed that his representatives would send him the information. Having received this query on a number of occasions, I emailed the British Public Record Office (now the UK National Archives) several years ago in an attempt to learn what copies they had, and how they received them, and received the following reply:

"We hold three known copies of the declaration - two Dunlap prints and one by Hugh Gaine. All three copies were sent to England by crown servants in the course of their duties and are to be found among the records of the appropriate departments (the Colonial Office and the Admiralty).

One Dunlap print (reference CO 5/177 folio 29) was sent by the Commissioners for Restoring Peace in America (Vice-Admiral Richard, Viscount Howe and his brother General William Howe) to Lord George Germain (Secretary of State for the Colonies) as an enclosure to their
despatch of 11 August reporting the fact that the American colonies had declared independence. In their despatch they wrote

'It is our Duty to acquaint Your Lordship that, on the 4th of July
last, the General Congress came to a Resolution to declare, that the associated Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. A printed Copy of their Declaration of Independency came accidentally to our Hands a few Days after the Dispatch of the Mercury Packet [ship], and we have the Honor to inclose it.'

The second Dunlap (original reference ADM 1/487 folio 34, now EXT 9/1) was sent by Vice-Admiral Howe in his other capacity as Commander in Chief on the North American Station to Philip Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty. On 28 July 1776 Howe wrote to Stephens

'I have added hereto a copy of the Declaration issued by the American Congress the 4th of this month and a New York Paper containing the Constitution framed in Consequence ...'

The Hugh Gaine print (original reference CO 5/1107 folio 375, now EXT 9/26) was sent by William Tryon, Governor of New York, as an enclosure to his letter of 14 August to Lord George Germain. In his letter he wrote

'The Confederate Colonies have declared themselves independent States;
Enclosed is a printed Copy of their Declaration of Independency, which was published through the Streets of New York the middle of last Month ...'

The two copies sent to Lord George Germain (from the Commissioners for Restoring Peace in America and from William Tryon) are noted as numbers
1961 (iii) and 1968 (i) respectively in Documents of the American Revolution 1770-1783 (Colonial Office Series) Volume X, Calendar, 1 July 1775-1776 edited by KG Davies and published in Dublin by the Irish University Press in 1976 (ISBN 0 7165 2095 8 Volume X)."

Answer 2

There was this movie called the "Madness of King George"
starring Hellen Mirren and Nigel Hawthorne. The movie was made in 1994, and it was a good movie to watch and also learn how the king went insane because he was losing the colonies in the states. You can rent it at the following...

www.blockbuster.com

Enjoy-

Answer 3

I don't know what they sent to KG3, but I imagine he spat upon it or some such thing, and then tossed it in the dustbin. He was, after all, rather irritated by the Americans.

However, there were multiple copies, and people would indeed have signed all of them.

Answer 4

Billions. You forget that millions are sold every year for tourists in D.C. And for the time it wasn't ground shattering. It was just a piece of paper that said that some people were not to happy. Of course, a few years later it seemed like a pretty big deal.

Answer 5

sturdy question, I under no circumstances theory approximately that, great call for the question, yet everybody is allways determining to purchase and merchandising their historic stuff with eachother, so i'm assuming they gave it back.