Historic Thomas Paine deed falls out of 18th century novel

A torn sheet of 18th century paper which tumbled out of a novel by Tobias Smollett found in a cellar, has proved to be the legal document which not only dissolved the marriage of Thomas Paine, but gave him cash in hand to buy his ticket to America - where he would become one of the most famous radical pamphleteers in the world, author of Common Sense and a leading figure in the American revolution and the founding of the United States.

The document, missing for well over a century, will return this week to Lewes, the town where Paine worked as a customs officer, and married his publican landlord's daughter, Elizabeth Ollive.

The document, referred to in standard biographies but not apparently actually seen since 1892, turned up again during the town's first Thomas Paine festival this summer.

Paine's fortunes, always precarious, were at a particularly low ebb in 1774. He had been sacked from the excise service on a trumped up charge, the tobacco shop he had started with his late father in law had failed, he had to sell most of the household goods to avoid a debtor's prison, and his marriage to the much younger Elizabeth was in tatters.

The deed formally separated them, "whereas certain unhappy Quarrels and dissensions have arisen", and provided that Elizabeth should keep the money she inherited from her father, but hand over £45 she had in cash – in return stipulating that Paine "shall not nor wil at any time hereafter slander or defame his said wife".

Paine spent the money on his ticket to the America, arriving in Philadelphia too seasick to stand on November 30 1774, and the rest was history.

The document was hanging in the home of John Hughes, at Cowfold, West Sussex. His brother took over as manager of a new jeweller's in Hastings in the late 1970s, where in clearing the cellar when he found a load of old books, and asked the owner of the building if he could have them.

The document fell out of an early copy of an 18th century novel by Smollett, and they thought it interesting and attractive enough to frame. It was only when the festival revived local interest in Paine that they realised its significance.

It has been bought for almost £13,500 at a Bloomsbury auction by the East Sussex records office and Lewes town council using external grants. Donors include Paul Myles, who organised the festival, and who now wonders if the book, holding one third of the original document which would have been kept as proof by one of the parties to the agreement, could have belonged to Elizabeth.

Appropriately, given the importance of drink and taverns in Paine's time in the town, the local Harvey's brewery also contributed.