Background
Deane, Silas was born on December 24, 1737 in Groton, Connecticut, United States. The son of Silas and Sarah (Barker) Deane.
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Deane, Silas was born on December 24, 1737 in Groton, Connecticut, United States. The son of Silas and Sarah (Barker) Deane.
Deane graduated from Yale in 1758.
In 1761 Deane Silas was admitted to the bar, but instead of practising became a merchant at Wethersfield, Connecticut. He was elected to the Continental Congress as a representative from Connecticut, but was repudiated as a delegate in 1776.
Deane was granted commissions on these transactions; thus his mission embraced dual interests, private and public, that would have tested the strongest rectitude. Artful and enterprising, Deane allied himself with Edward Bancroft, a former pupil and perhaps the cleverest double-spy of modern times.
On arriving in Paris, Deane at once opened negotiations with Vergennes and Beaumarchais, securing through the latter the shipment of many vessel loads of arms and munitions of war to America.
He also enlisted the services of a number of Continental soldiers of fortune, among whom were Lafayette, Baron Johann De Kalb and Thomas Conway.
His carelessness in keeping account of his receipts and expenditures, and the differences between himself and Arthur Lee regarding the contracts with Beaumarchais, eventually led, in November 1777, to his recall to face charges, of which Lee's complaints formed the basis.
In America he was defended by John Jay and John Adams, and after stating his case to Congress was allowed to return to Paris (1781) to settle his affairs.
Differences with various French officials led to his retirement to Holland, where he remained until after the treaty of peace had been signed, when he settled in England.
No evidence of his dishonesty was ever discovered, and Congress recognized the validity of his claims by voting $37, 000 to his heirs in 1842.
The Correspondence of Silas Deane was published in the Connecticut Historical Society's Collections.
Subsequently Silas Deane became one of the regularly accredited commissioners to France from Congress.
Deane's hometown of Wethersfield, Connecticut has a Silas Deane Middle School and a Silas Deane Highway. A road in Ledyard, Connecticut is also named for him. Deane's mansion in Wethersfield (1766), now the Silas Deane House, has been restored, declared a National Historical Landmark, and been opened to the public as a part of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Deane was married twice, both times to wealthy widows from Wethersfield. Silas Deane was married to Mehitable (Nott) Webb and to Llizabeth (Saltonstall) Evards.
(m. 1763; d. 1767)
She was the granddaughter of Connecticut Governor Gurdon Saltonstall of the Massachusetts Saltonstall family.
