Square, and educated under Dr. Valpy at the Reading School, where he had Thomas Noon Talfourd [q. v.] as a schoolfellow. He was also at St. Catharine Hall, Cambridge, but did not graduate. Abandoning the intention of taking holy orders, he entered on a literary career and found a publisher in William Hone for his first poem, a production of promise, entitled ‘Hacho, or the Spell of St. Wilten.’ He next undertook the editorship of a daily journal, ‘The Déjeuné, or Companion for the Breakfast Table,’ which was issued every morning, price twopence, from 21 Oct. 1820 to 15 Dec. following, when the issue was changed to three times a week and shortly after ceased. This venture was published by Gold & Northouse, who also put forth a ‘London Magazine’ (1820–1) as a rival to the better known periodical of the same name, edited by John Scott and published by Baldwin, and they enlisted Deacon as a chief contributor. His health failing, he retired to Llangadock in South Wales, from which place he wrote for counsel and guidance to Sir Walter Scott, who sent him some kind and interesting letters. At this time his father tried in vain to turn his attention from literature to commerce. In 1823 he published a volume of clever sketches of Welsh manners and scenery, entitled ‘The Innkeeper's Album,’ and in 1824 appeared his ‘Warreniana, with Notes, Critical and Explanatory, by the Editor of a Quarterly Review,’ consisting of a series of burlesque imitations of popular authors in the style of the ‘Rejected Addresses,’ and in praise of Warren's blacking. It was published by Longman's and met with much success. It was reprinted in 1851. He also wrote ‘November Tales,’ a collection of tales and essays.
In 1829 he lost an annuity of 100l. hitherto received from a relative, and was driven to depend entirely on his literary efforts. After acting for a short period as assistant in a school at Dulwich, he joined the staff of the ‘Sun’ newspaper as contributor of its literary criticism, and became esteemed as a critic of sound judgment and taste. This engagement continued until his death. He wrote also in ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ and one of his series of papers, ‘The Picture Gallery’ (1837–9), was subsequently reprinted. In 1835 he published his humorous tale in two volumes, ‘The Exile of Erin, or the Sorrows of a Bashful Irishman,’ which attained considerable popularity both at home and in America.
Deacon lived many years in comparative seclusion, happy in the society of his wife and children, in Malvern Terrace, Islington, where he died on 18 March 1845, in his forty-sixth year. He left behind him the manuscript of a novel called ‘Annette,’ which was published in three volumes in 1853, with a prefatory memoir by Sir T. N. Talfourd.
[Talfourd's preface to Annette; communication from Rev. A. W. N. Deacon.]
DEALTRY, THOMAS, D.D. (1796–1861), third bishop of Madras, was born in 1796 of poor parents at Knottingley in Yorkshire. He was in a great measure self-taught. At an early age he became an usher in a school at Doncaster, and subsequently was employed as a private tutor in several families. He was twice married before he went to Cambridge, where in 1825 he was matriculated pensioner of St. Catharine Hall, supporting himself while working for his degree by private tuition. He took the degree of LL.B. in 1829, his name appearing in the first class of the ‘Law Class List’ for 1827–8. He was ordained in 1828, and held for a time a curacy in St. Peter's Church, Cambridge. He there attracted by his preaching the attention of Charles Simeon, at whose Friday evening meetings he made the acquaintance of the Rev. Thomas Thomason, then recently returned from India. At his instance and through the intervention of Simeon, Dealtry was offered and accepted a chaplaincy in Bengal, to which he was appointed early in 1829. Immediately on his arrival at Calcutta he was attached to the old or mission church, of which he retained charge during the whole of his service as a chaplain. In 1835 he was appointed by Bishop Wilson archdeacon of Calcutta. In 1848 he left India on furlough, and shortly after reaching England succeeded Baptist Noel [q. v.] in the incumbency of St. John's Church, Bedford Row. In the following year he was consecrated bishop of Madras, and was installed at Madras on 2 Feb. 1850, holding that see until his death, which took place on 4 March 1861.
Like his eminent predecessors on the roll of Bengal chaplains, Brown, Martyn, Buchanan, Thomason, and Corrie, Dealtry combined with his work as a government chaplain, and in after years with his duties as bishop of Madras, an active and practical interest in missions, filling for some years the post of honorary secretary to the Church Missionary Society at Calcutta, and contributing liberally throughout his Indian life to the various mission funds. By the missionaries, both of the church of England and of the protestant dissenting bodies, he was regarded as a staunch and cordial friend. He was an earnest and effective preacher, leaning in his doctrine to the teaching of the evangelical school, but actuated by a catholic sympathy with chris-
