The Sussex Declaration and the Trans-Atlantic Ties Project

In the early 1950s a hand-written parchment copy of the American Declaration of Independence was deposited at the West Sussex Record Office. There it remained, largely forgotten, until a few years ago when an American academic saw it listed in the Record Office’s indexes. Ultimately this would lead to a significant grant from America to fund the Trans-Atlantic Ties project, which explored the historical connections between West Sussex and the U.S.A. County Archivist, Wendy Walker, tells the fascinating story of how the document came to be in the possession of the West Sussex Record Office in the first place, and the outcome of the Trans-Atlantic Ties project.