Above: Southborough officials happily accepted a new old document last week. (image from Facebook)
I’m sharing some news, and related history, that I wish I’d had in time to share last week. But for those still in the mood to celebrate the semiquincentennial . .
The Monday before the nation’s 250th anniversary of Independence Day, the Town received a special gift from the Massachusetts 250 committee.
Each town in the state was provided a free copy of the Declaration of Independence that was printed using historically appropriate linen paper and an old fashioned printing press.
The Community Advocate published a story last month about the Westborough printer who created the documents — Gary Gregory. (He’s pictured, dressed as Benjamin Franklin, right.) You can read about his printing process here.
Southborough’s document was hand delivered to Town officials by our state legislators, Representative Kate Donaghue and Senator Jamie Eldridge. It was accepted by (right to left) Select Board member Sam Stivers, Town Administrator Mark Purple, and Historical Commission Chair Kevin Miller.
Purple recapped the event at this week’s Select Board meeting. He told the board that the replica would be framed and hung in the Town House. He plans to pick a place where it will be “one of the first things people see” when they enter.
Select Board Chair Kathy Cook said she was happy there was a plan:
because, as you know, we’ve had trouble historically over the years keeping track of our historical items.
The items Cook was referring to likely included at least one of Southborough’s original 1776 documents.
Southborough’s Original Declarations of Independence
A few years ago, the Southborough Historical Society (SHS) sold the copy of the Declaration of Independence originally printed to be read to Southborough.
The document was auctioned off by Sotheby’s in July 2022. (No advance notice was given to the community that the auction was taking place.) One of the factors in the SHS board’s decision to sell it had been the cost of preserving and securing it.
Although Sotheby’s had listed the sold price as $2.228M, SHS President Michael Weishan told me the sale “fetched $1.8M”.
As I wrote at the time, the document was described as Southborough’s “official broadside copy”. But Weishan said it wasn’t the Town government’s property. It had been issued to the head of the First Church of Southborough. According to Weishan, it was part of the private non-profit’s collection.
Weishan also explained that in 1776, each Town Clerk was meant to record the reading of the document. Southborough’s handwritten document was what officially belonged to the Town. He described it as among a set of Town documents from that period that are known to have been in the Town’s possession until at least the 1980s. But it appeared to have been lost sometime after that.
You can read more details about the documents (and the sale) in my 2022 post here.
More history of Southborough supporting/declaring Independence
I’m sharing a bit of extra, related history in honor of the recent holiday. According to historian Nick Noble, the Town of Southborough officially supported the cause of Independence almost a month prior to July 4th. On June 10, 1776, the Town voted to support the Article:
If the Honourable Continental Congress should for the Safety of the Colonies Declare themselves independent of Great Britton, they the said inhabitants (of Southborough) will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support the measure.
(Unfortunately, Noble doesn’t detail if there is record of the vote count.)
By early July the community had only heard rumors and not official word that Congress had voted to declare independence. Still:
On July 4, 1776, Seth Newton and Elijah Bellows, officers of the Southborough militia, applied to the town for monies with which to purchase fifes and drums.
Noble also wrote:
It was in mid-July when a rider reached Southborough from Boston, bearing a special package for the Selectmen and Re. Stone. That Sunday, Nathan Stone stepped into the pulpit of the Southborough Meeting House and read a document to the assembled congregation.
If you’re hungry for more details, check out Fences of Stone (literally) from the Southborough Library.
