Key US independence document bore arms of British king

Portrait of George III by Sir William Beechey. Photograph: Zoom Historical/Alamy

It is a founding document of the United States and inspired the Declaration of Independence and the purge of British power from the American colonies.

But, ironically, George Mason’s seminal Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 was written on paper watermarked with the arms of the king of Great Britain and Ireland, an expert has discovered.