horse for an hour,’ and ‘to run the gantelope through the regiment … for the example of others who, under colour of being soldiers, care not what knavery they act’ (ib. 1369).
For the events which followed in January 1648–9 Deane has a full measure of responsibility. He was truly ‘a forward busybody,’ as he is described by Bate. He was one of the commissioners for the trial of the king, and on 24 Jan. he was appointed one of the committee to examine the witnesses; on the 27th he stood up in approval of the judgment; on the 29th he was one of the committee of five to consider the time and place of execution; and he was the twenty-first out of the fifty-nine who signed the warrant. His signature is written in his usual firm bold hand, and his seal of arms is distinctly impressed, without the least sign of hurry or nervousness.
The council of state met for the first time on 17 Feb., and on the 20th resolved ‘that the commission making the Earl of Warwick lord high admiral be called in,’ and that the command at sea should be given to commissioners. On the 23rd they named Colonel Edward Popham, Colonel Robert Blake, and Colonel Richard Deane as the three commissioners ‘to go to sea this summer, to take the command of the fleet,’ and the formal commission was signed on the 27th. This appointment of trusted army officers was unquestionably made chiefly from political motives; but it appears probable that at least two of the commissioners had some previous familiarity with maritime affairs [see Blake, Robert]. Deane is said, by a number of vague reports, to have been, in early life, a seaman, a common sailor, a hoyman's servant, a boatswain; and though these are quite untrustworthy as to any detail, the general conclusion to which they all point may perhaps be accepted. Through the summer of 1649 the three commissioners, or, as they came to be officially styled, ‘generals at sea,’ were separated; Popham being stationed to the east of Portsmouth, Blake blockading Kinsale, and Deane ranging from Portsmouth westward to Milford Haven. In August he convoyed Cromwell's army from Milford Haven to Dublin; and there is reason to think that he landed and served with it for about two months, during which Drogheda and Wexford were taken by storm. In the later operations the army suffered much from sickness; and Deane, writing from Milford Haven on 8 Nov. 1649, says: ‘I have, ever since my coming out of Ireland, been troubled with the distemper of that country's disease, which brought me into a fever.’ The inference is supported by the doggerel statement of one of his posthumous panegyrists, who says:—
The Irishmen, or rather Roman frogs,
He made, for safety, leap into their bogs;
which he could scarcely be supposed to have done without going on shore (J. B. Deane, p. 407). He was still sick on 4 Dec., when orders were sent to Blake ‘to go towards Cadiz to seek out Prince Rupert’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom.; Penn, Life of Penn, i. 293).
In 1650 Deane extended his cruises as far as the Downs and into the North Sea in order to cut off the communication between Holland and King Charles in Scotland. After the battle of Dunbar he was at Edinburgh on 22 Sept., and in February 1651 was again ordered to take his squadron northward. On 29 March he arrived at Leith, bringing his own regiment and, among other supplies, a number of large flat-bottomed boats for the transport of the troops across the Firth. On 6 May he was ordered by Cromwell to take command on shore as major-general of the army, in which capacity he had a prominent part in the operations of the ensuing summer, the pursuit of the Scotch into England and the battle of Worcester (3 Sept. 1651). He was afterwards sent back to Scotland as one of the commissioners for the settlement of that country, and, on Lambert's being sent to Ireland as lord deputy, was appointed president of the commission as well as commander-in-chief of the army in Scotland. He thus during 1652 held the supreme command, both legal and executive, by land and sea, and in this capacity made an agreement with the Marquis of Argyll which led to the pacification of the highlands (Eg. MS. 2519, ff. 21, 23), reconciled Edinburgh and all the chief towns, reduced Arran, and captured the Bass Rock, which, in enemy's hands, commanded the navigation of the Forth and the sea approach to Edinburgh. Dunnottar Castle, where the regalia of Scotland had been lodged for security, surrendered to Colonel Morgan, one of Deane's officers, on honourable terms. One of the leading articles of the capitulation was that ‘the crown and sceptre of Scotland, together with all other ensigns of regalia, should be delivered to the English general, or a good account given thereof, for the use of the parliament.’ And it was agreed that ‘upon the true performance of the forementioned articles,’ the governor, Captain George Ogilvie, and all the garrison should march out with the honours of war. When the castle was taken possession of, the regalia were not to be found, and Ogilvie was accused of having made away with them; his denial of all knowledge of what had become of them
