Bye bye American lie! Declaration of Arbroath myth debunked

IT was a tenet of US history so widely believed it was enshrined in law.

The 1776 Declaration of Independence was directly inspired by the Declaration of Arbroath four and a half centuries earlier – or so the thinking went.

On the strength of this, Congress voted that US National Tartan Day should fall on April 6, the anniversary of the 1320 Arbroath declaration. But a Scottish study says the idea of a link between the declarations is a myth inspired by a 1970s magazine. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) researcher Laura Harrison also found the idea was given impetus by a US chat show presented by Scot Craig Ferguson.

When Senator Trent Lott successfully introduced a motion to have a Tartan Day, he said ‘by honouring April 6, Americans will annually celebrate the true beginning of the quest for liberty and freedom, Arbroath and the declaration for liberty.’

But after examining sources used by the compilers of the Declaration of Independence and their personal records, US cultural geographer Professor Euan Hague concluded: ‘The Declaration of Arbroath is conspicuous only by its total absence.’

Writing about the ‘link’ in an HES blog, Dr Harrison said: ‘It appears to be relatively new. The earliest mention I have found is from 1975… in an American Scottish Clan Society’s members magazine. Since then it’s been mentioned in a number of places, from Westminster to an American TV show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.’

On the Declaration of Arbroath, she said: ‘We can safely say Thomas Jefferson did not have a picture of it hanging in his study as he drafted the Declaration of Independence.’