Massachusetts historical society, of which body he was the recording secretary.
DEANE, James, India'n missionary, b. in Gro-
ton, Conn., 20 Aug., 1748; d. in Westmoreland,
Oneida cc, N. Y., 10 Sept., 1823. He was gradu-
ated 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 pecul-
iarly fitted, being familiar with their language,
having been, when twelve yeai's of age, associated
with the liev. 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 medi- cine. 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 com- munication, 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 con- tributed frequently to Silliman's " Journal " and the Boston " Medical and Surgical Journal," and was the author of a paper on the " Hygienic Con- dition of the Survivoi's 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 col-
lege and enlisted as a private soldier in defence of
the Union. He was captured at the battle of
Gettysburg, and was tor 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 Roches-
ter 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 num-
ber 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 Regis-
ter" 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 Wethersfiekl, 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 infiuential 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 govei'nment against him, and he was thus forced to retire to Holland, whence he passed over to England, where he died in great
poverty, estranged
from his native land
and feeling that he
had been unjustlv
dealt with. In 184i3
congress vindicated
his memory by de-
ciding that a consid-
erable sum of money
was due him, and
directed its payment
to his heirs. Deane
published, in his own
defence. " Letters to
Hon. Robert Mor-
ris " (New London,
1784); "An Address
to the Free and In-
dependent Citizens
of the United States
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of North America" (Hartford and London, 1784); and " Paris Papers, or Mr. Silas Deane's late In- tercepted Letters to hrs Brother and other Friends " (New York, 1781).