Massachusetts historical society, of which body he was the recording secretary.
Deane, James, Indian missionary, b. in Groton, Conn., 20 Aug., 1748; d. in Westmoreland, Oneida co., N. Y., 10 Sept., 1823. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1773. In 1773–'4 he was a missionary to the Canadian Indians, and he was afterward employed by congress to pacify the northern Indians, a work for which he was peculiarly fitted, being familiar with their language, having been, when twelve years of age, associated with the Rev. Mr. Mosely, a missionary to the Six Nations. During the Revolutionary war he was commissioned as a major, and served as an Indian agent and interpreter at Fort Stanwix. He was taken prisoner by the Indians, and would have been killed but for the pleadings of their women. At the close of the war the Oneidas granted him a tract of land two miles square, near Rome, Oneida co., which he afterward exchanged for a tract in Westmoreland, whither he removed in 1786. He was for a long time a judge in Oneida county, and held other offices of trust. Judge Deane wrote an essay on Indian mythology, which is preserved in manuscript by Chancellor Anson J. Upson.
Deane, James, naturalist, b. in Coleraine, Mass., 14 Feb., 1801; d. in Greenfield, 8 June, 1858. He passed his early life on his father's farm, and in 1822 removed to Greenfield, where, after writing for four years in a lawyer's office, he studied medicine. He was graduated as M. D. in 1831, and practised from that date until his death. In the spring of 1835 he discovered fossil footprints in the red sandstone of the Connecticut valley, and, having called the attention of scientific men to the fact, his investigations were afterward extended by Prof. Edward Hitchcock and others. American geologists were soon convinced of the genuineness of the footprints; but those in England were skeptical until a box of impressions, with a communication, had been sent by Dr. Deane to Dr. G. A. Mantell, by whom they were placed before the Geological society of London. At the time of his death he was about publishing an illustrated work embodying the results of twenty-four years of geological study and labor, which has since been issued by the Smithsonian institution. He contributed frequently to Silliman's "Journal" and the Boston "Medical and Surgical Journal," and was the author of a paper on the "Hygienic Condition of the Survivors of Ovariotomy," in which he favored the morality of the operation.
Deane, John Hall, lawyer, b. in Canada. He removed to the United States at an early age. He entered Rochester university, but in 1862 left college and enlisted as a private soldier in defence of the Union. He was captured at the battle of Gettysburg, and was for some time confined in a Confederate prison. After being exchanged, he entered the navy and served until the close of the war. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in the city of New York. Mr. Deane has been especially distinguished for his gifts to benevolent institutions under the control of Baptists. To Rochester university he has given $100,000, besides considerable sums to the Rochester theological seminary and to Vassar college.
Deane, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Mansfield, Mass., 30 March, 1784; d. 9 Aug., 1834. He was graduated at Brown in 1805, and in 1810 became pastor of the second church at Scituate, Mass., a charge which he retained for twenty-four years. He published "The Populous Village," a poem (1826); a "History of Scituate" (1831); and a number of sermons and short poems.—His nephew, William Reed, antiquary, b. in Mansfield, Mass., 21 Aug., 1809; d. there, 16 June, 1871, was engaged many years in mercantile life in Boston, and also contributed largely to the Unitarian and the secular press. He wrote valuable articles for the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register" and "The Historical Magazine," and was thoroughly acquainted with the early history of New England. He published genealogical histories of the Deane (in 1849), Leonard (1851), and Watson (1864) families, and also edited "Madam Knight's Journal," reprinted in "Littell's Living Age," 26 June, 1858. He was one of the earliest members of and held various offices in the New England historic-genealogical society.
Deane, Silas, diplomatist, b. in Groton, Conn., 24 Dec, 1737; d. in Deal, England, 23 Aug., 1789. He was graduated at Yale in 1758, and, engaging in mercantile pursuits at Wethersfield, Conn., took a leading part in the movements that led to the outbreak of the Revolution. He was sent as a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental congress, 1774–'6. In 1776 he was ordered to France as a secret political and financial agent, where he made arrangements for securing substantial aid from that country, and, with Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee, negotiated treaties of amity and commerce between France and the United States that were signed in Paris, 6 Feb., 1778. He also personally obtained the services of Lafayette, De Kalb, and other foreign officers. These contracts were subsequently made the basis of charges against him by congress on the ground of extravagance, and he was recalled in consequence by resolution passed 21 Nov., 1777. Reaching Philadelphia in 1778, he found that many reports had been circulated to his discredit. These seem to have originated with his late colleague, Arthur Lee, who had quarrelled with him in Paris, but Deane had warm friends in Jay and Adams, the latter having succeeded him in his mission to France. After a heated controversy with influential members of congress, and being required by that body to make a full statement of his financial transactions in France, he was compelled to return to that country to procure the requisite papers. There he found that the publication of certain of his private despatches had embittered the French government against him, and he was thus forced to retire to Holland, whence he passed over to England, where he died in great poverty, estranged An image should appear at this position in the text. from his native land and feeling that he had been unjustly dealt with. In 1842 congress vindicated his memory by deciding that a considerable sum of money was due him, and directed its payment to his heirs. Deane published, in his own defence, "Letters to Hon. Robert Morris" (New London, 1784); "An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America" (Hartford and London, 1784); and "Paris Papers, or Mr. Silas Deane's late Intercepted Letters to his Brother and other Friends" (New York, 1781).
