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 the same year for $77,000 to David O'Neal, in partnership with Seth Kaller of Kaller Historical Documents, Inc.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.