Silas Deane

• General Notes
  • Silas Deane
    Vindicated Revolutionary Hero!
    Exiled from America - Vindicated by Congress in 1842
    Descendant of George Partridge, Ralph Partridge and Stephen Tracy
    
    Silas Deane - Biography One
    Silas Deane - Biography Two
    Silas Deane's Intelligence Activities
    Silas Deane - Conflict with Congress
    Essay of a Patriot - 1779 - Why Hasn't Congress Looked into Deane's Address?
    Double Spy use Silas Deane During the Revolution
    One of Silas Deane's Recruits Involved in Attempted Overthrow of Washington
    Silas Deane - Step-father of Samuel Blatchley Webb
    Silas Deane - Involved in Taking of Ticonderoga
    Recruits LaFayette
    Silas Deane Causes Thomas Paine to Resign Post
    Arthur Lee Argues with Franklin and Paine
    George Washington Drops in for Dinner
    How Does Ralph Izard fit into the mix??
    The Lee Brothers - The Other Side of the Story
    Bits and Pieces on Silas Deane - Related Links
    A Painting of Silas Deane - from the CIA Home Page
    Silas Deane's Genealogy
    Lingering Questions
    Return Links
    
    Biography I of Silas Deane - Vindicated Patriot
    
    "Deane, Silas, diplomatist, was born in Groton, Conn., Dec. 24, 1737. He was graduated at Yale in 1758, and engaged as a storekeeper at Weathersfield, Conn. He was one of the earliest advocates of Revolutionary methods to secure the rights of the colonists, and was a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental congress, 1774-76.
    
    In 1776 he was sent by congress to France as special ambassador on a secret mission, which resulted in his securing substantial loans from French capitalists and in inducing Lafayette, De Kalb and other trained military officers of the French army, personally to take service in the Continental army in the war against Great Britain. With Franklin and Lee he negotiated the treaties of amity and commerce between the United Colonies and France, as signed at Paris, Feb. 6. 1778.
    
    The contracts he made with the French officers were deemed extravagant in the matter of compensation, and his financial transactions generally were questioned. Congress, by resolution passed Nov. 21, 1777, recalled him and sent John Adams as his successor. He appeared before congress in 1778 and there had a long and bitter controversy. He was greatly befriended by John Adams and John Jay, who had implicit faith in his financial integrity.
    
    He was required by congress to make a detailed statement of his financial transactions, and in order to do so was obliged to return to France in 1782 to obtain the vouchers of his receipts and disbursements. In consequence of the unauthorized publication of certain of his private letters and dispatches to his brother which had been intercepted, the French government would not receive him and he was obliged to seek refuge in Holland.
    
    He then went to England where he died in poverty.
    
    In 1842 congress made a full examination of the unfortunate affair and vindicated the memory of the eminent diplomatist by paying to his heirs a considerable sum of money found to be due him after an impartial adjustment of his accounts as financial agent. Yale college gave him his A.M. degree in 1763. He is the author of: Paris Papers; or Mr. Silas Deane's Late Intercepted Letters to His Brother and Other Friends (New York, 1751); and published in his own defence An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America (1784), issued in America and England.
    
    He died in Deal, England, Aug. 23, 1789."
    
    American Biographical Library, The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Volume 3, page 186
    
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    Biography II of Silas Deane - Vindicated Patriot
    
    "DEANE, Silas, a Delegate from Connecticut; born in Groton, Conn., December 24, 1737; received a classical training, and was graduated from Yale College, New Haven, Conn., in 1758; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1761 and commenced practice in Wethersfield, Conn.; afterward engaged in mercantile pursuits in the same town; deputy of the general assembly 1768-1775; Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1776.
    
    He was ordered to France in March 1776 as a secret political and financial agent, and in September was commissioned as Ambassador with Franklin and Lee; negotiated and signed the treaty between France and the United States in Paris on February 6, 1778; personally secured the services of Lafayette, De Kalb, and other foreign officers, for which he was accused of extravagance, and was recalled in 1777 and investigated by Congress; returned to France to procure transcripts of his transactions there, and found that the publication of some of his confidential dispatches had embittered that Government against him, and he was  compelled to go to Holland, and thence to Great Britain, greatly impoverished; died on board ship sailing from Gravesend to Boston September 23, 1789; interment in Deal, on the Kentish coast, England.
    
    In 1842 Congress vindicated his memory by deciding that a considerable sum of money was due him, which was paid to his heirs."
    
    Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949, Biographies, page 1069
    
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    Silas Deane's Intelligence Activities
    
    From the CIA's "Intelligence in the War of Independence" Web Page
    
    * On March 1, 1776, the Committee of Secret Correspondence appointed Silas Deane, a former delegate to the Continental Congress, as its agent in France. He was instructed to pose as a Bermudian merchant dealing in Indian goods. He was also appointed as an agent of the Secret Committee, charged with making secret purchases and with attempting to gain secret assistance from the French Crown. Later, both Deane and Lee would be converted from agents to commissioners to the French Crown, albeit secret ones, until the open and formal alliance of France with the Americans.
    * Shortly after arriving in Paris in the spring of 1776, Silas expanded the Franco-American relationship begun by Arthur Lee, who had been working secretly from England. He worked with Beaumarchais and other French merchants to procure ships, commission privateers, recruit French officers, and purchase French military supplies declared "surplus" for that purpose.
    * On September 26, 1776, Congress selected Franklin, Deane, and Lee (Lee replaced Thomas Jefferson who stayed home to tend his sick wife) as secret commissioners to France. Deane had already been operating as a secret agent there for six months.
    * On the high seas, British supply ships and troop ships often fell to American privateers operating under letters of marque and reprisal from the Continental Congress. Franklin, for example, ran a flotilla of Irish and French privateers from the American mission in Paris. Success in intercepting British vessels was so great that the British accused their captains of taking bribes from the Americans to surrender their ships. One privateer, operating under contract to Silas Deane and a French business associate and utilizing a French ship obtained by Benjamin Franklin, was the Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones.
    * Silas Deane arranged for the "John the Painter" to make entry into England and begin his series of sabotoge bombings against sites in England. James Aitken, aka "John the Painter", was eventually caught and hung in England in March, 1777.
    * While serving in Paris as an agent of the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Silas Deane is known to have used a heat-developing invisible ink, compounded of cobalt chloride, glycerine and water, for some of his intelligence reports back to America. Even more useful to him later was a "sympathetic stain" created for secret communications by James Jay, a physician and the brother of John Jay. Dr. Jay, who had been knighted by George III, used the "stain" for reporting military information from London to America. Later he supplied quantities of the stain to George Washington at home and to Silas Deane in Paris.
    * On March 30, 1778, Franklin, Lee, and Deane were received at the French Court as "official" representatives of the United States of America.
    
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    The Deane Conflict with Congress
    
    "Silas Deane, while representing the United States at the court of France, and agent under the Congress committee of secret correspondence, entered into conventions with a number of foreign officers whereby they  were to receive commissions in the American army which would cause them to outrank meritorious American officers who had been fighting for a year or more in behalf of their country. Congress repudiated this agreement, declaring that Deane had no authority to make such conventions, and on November 21, 1777, ordered his recall from Paris.
    
    On his return to this country Congress, in August, 1778, desired him to give an account of his transactions in France, as well as a particular state of the funds entrusted to his care. They were not satisfied with his reports, and on December 1 resolved to hold night sessions to consider the subject, and so notified Mr. Deane. But he, instead of attempting to satisfy their curiosity as to his financial transactions abroad, published in the Philadelphia newspapers of December 4, 1778, "An address to the free and virtuous citizens of America," in which he bitterly assailed the Congress, reflected upon the integrity of some leading members, and insinuated that there was a design to break faith with France, &c.
    
    The matter was threshed out in Congress and in the public prints, Tom Paine, in particular, in his incisive and trenchant style, under the signature of "Common Sense," showing the insincerity and essential falsity of Deane's charges, and the urgent need he was in of clearing his own skirts from the taint of incapacity, dishonesty and corruption. A very good summary of the controversy is given in Gordon's History of the American War, 3: 38, 216. The fullest account is in the Deane Papers, Vol. III., N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1888."
    
    DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE  REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY  OF THE   STATE OF NEW JERSEY.  VOLUME III. EXTRACTS FROM AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS RELATING  TO NEW JERSEY.  VOL. III. 1779.  EDITED BY WILLIAM NELSON.
    
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    Double Spy Used Silas Deane! Revolutionary Intrigue!
    
    "BANCROFT, Edward, author, was born at Westfield, Mass:, Jan. 9, 1744. Having a natural love for adventure, he left home at an early age, and shipped on a vessel. A second voyage took him to Guiana, where he engaged in the practice of medicine. He afterwards went to England where he devoted himself to literary work. Through the influence of Benjamin Franklin he became a writer on the Monthly Review. He was suspected of aiding in the attempt to burn the Portsmouth dock-yard and was obliged to take refuge in France, in 1777, where, through his acquaintance with Silas Deane, commissioner of the Continental Congress, he obtained intelligence about American Continental affairs of use to the British government, and he imparted his knowledge to the British ministry. He was in the employ of both the English and Continental governments as a spy. He accumulated a large fortune by securing patents from England and France for exclusive right to import yellow oak bark for dyeing purposes. He was a member of the Royal college of physicians in London, and a fellow of the Royal society. His publications include "Natural History of Guiana" (1769); "Remarks on the Review of the Controversy between Great Britain and Her Colonies" (1771); "Charles Wentworth"; "Experimental Researches Concerning Permanent Colors" (1794); "Philosophy of Permanent Colors" (2 vols., 1813), and many short articles. He died in England, Sept. 8, 1820."
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume I
    
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    A Silas Deane French Recruit Tries to Overthrow Washington!
    
    "CONWAY, Thomas, soldier, was born in Ireland, Feb. 27, 1733. He was a soldier in the French army and had won the rank of colonel and the decoration of St. Louis, when Silas Deane urged him to join the American army in the war of the Revolution. He sailed to America and offered his services to the Continental congress, which body on May 1l, 1777, made him a brigadier-general and he took part in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
    
    Later in the same year he became the conspicuous leader of a plot to displace Washington and give the command of the army to General Gates, then the hero of the hour by reason of the surrender of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. Into this plot a considerable number of members of congress and such statesmen as John Adams, Benjamin Rush and other as prominent patriots were unconsciously drawn.
    
    General Gates was made president of the board-of-war and Lafayette the proposed leader of a Canadian campaign in which Conway was to be second in command. Letters from Conway to prominent men, alleging Washington's responsibility for disasters in the south, and even forged papers purporting to be signed by Washington, added to the spirit of discontent until the plot was exposed to Washington, who speedily restored subordination.
    
    Lafayette refused to lead the Canadian expedition unless he should have as his second officer Baron de Kalb. Conway had meanwhile been promoted to the rank of major-general and congress on Dec. 14, 1777, confirmed the promotion in spite of Washington's disapproval. In the following March, however, he made a conditional offer to resign, which congress promptly accepted, making it unconditional, and he was obliged to leave the army. Gen. John Cadwallader in July, 1778, challenged Conway, and the meeting resulted in Conway's being badly wounded in the mouth. He complimented his antagonist on his marksmanship and as soon as physically able wrote an apology to Washington. He returned to France, re-entered the army and was made governor of Pondicherry and the French settlements in Hindustan. His quarrel with Tippoo Saib is said to have damaged greatly the prospects of French acquisitions in India. In 1792 he was given command of the royalist troops in the south of France but fled the country during the revolution and died about 1800."
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume II, page 355
    
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    Silas Deane - Father-in-law to Samuel Webb
    
    "WEBB, Samuel Blatchley, soldier, was born in Wethersfield, Conn., Dec. 15, 1753; descendant of Richard Webb, a native of Dorsetshire, England, who came to Cambridge, Mass., in 1626; was a freeman in Boston, Mass., in 1632, and a companion of the Rev. Thomas Hooker in Hartford, Conn., in 1635. His father having died when he was quite young, Samuel B. Webb became private secretary to his stepfather, Silas Deane.
    
    He was 1st lieutenant of a company under Captain Chester; commanded a company of light infantry at Bunker Hill, where he was wounded, and was commended for his gallantry in general orders. He was appointed aide-de-camp to Gen. Israel Putnam in 1775, and in 1776 was private secretary to General Washington with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
    
    He wrote the order for making public the Declaration of Independence in New York city, July 9, 1776, and refused to accept despatches from Lord Howe, addressed to "Mr." George Washington. He took part in the battles of Long Island, Princeton, White Plains and Trenton; raised the 3d Connecticut regiment, and participated in Gen. Samuel H. Parsons's disastrous expedition to Long Island, where he was captured, Dec. 10, 1777, and imprisoned for three years.
    
    He was brevetted brigadier-general in 1780 and succeeded General Steuben to the command of the light infantry under Washington. He was a founder of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783, and was the grand marshal during Washington's inauguration in New York city as first President of the United States. He removed to Claverack, Columbia county, N.Y., in 1789; was married to Catherine Hageboom, and their son, James Watson Webb, was born there, Feb. 8, 1802. General Webb died at his home in Claverack, N.Y., Dec. 3, 1807."
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume X
    
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    Silas Deane Involved in Taking of Ticonderoga!
    
    ".... On the way he (Samuel Holden Parsons) met Benedict Arnold at Hartford, April 27, 1775, who informed him of the extent of the armament at Ticonderoga, and with Col. Samuel Wyllys and Silas Deane he formed a plan for taking the fort and its large number of brass cannon, so much needed by the Continental army at Cambridge, Mass. These men with three others pledged their personal security for the money borrowed to fit out the expedition. Col. Parsons informed Ethan Allen of the project, and Allen met the Connecticut troop at Bennington, took command and captured the fort, May 10, 1775."
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume IIV, Sketch of Samuel Holden Parsons,  page 211
    
    See also The Taking of Ticonderoga, which mentions Silas Deane.
    
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    Recruits LaFayette
    
    LAFAYETTE, Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, Marquis de, patriot, was born at the Château de Chavagnac, Auvergne, France, Sept. 6, 1757; son of Michael Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Metier and Marie Louise (do Rivière) de Lafayette. His ancestor the Marechal de Lafayette was a distinguished French soldier, and Madame de Lafayette was a lady of extensive literary celebrity. He was educated at the College of Louis-le-Grand, at Paris, and upon the death of his mother and grandfather in 1770 he inherited a large fortune. He was a page to Queen Marie Leczinska and in 1772 was given a lieutenant's commission in the Mousquetaires du Roi. He was married April 11, 1774, to Anastasie Adrienne, daughter of the Duke de Noailles. He was commissioned a captain of artillery in a regiment stationed at Metz in 1776, and at a dinner given in honor of the Duke of Gloucester he heard of the American Declaration of Independence, and of the disasters attending the patriot army in New Jersey. He communicated to Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin his intention of enlisting his services in the cause of American liberty and although forbidden by the court, and exposing himself to the loss of his property and to capture by the British on his passage to America, he purchased and fitted out a vessel at Bordeaux, and learning that an order had been issued for his arrest, he sailed to Passages, Spain, where his preparations were completed. He sailed April 26, 1777, in company with de Kalb and eleven other French officers; arrived at Charleston, S.C., where he equipped one hundred men with arms and clothing, as a testimonial of his admiration of the gallantry displayed in the defence of Fort Moultrie, and proceeding to Philadelphia offered his services to congress as a volunteer without pay. He was appointed major-general in the Continental army, July 31, 1777, and served for a time on the staff of General Washington.
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI, page 302303
    
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    Deane Causes Thomas Paine to Resign Post!
    
    Shortly after (issuing the pamphlet "Common Sense")  Paine was appointed Secretary to the Committee of the United States on Foreign Affairs. His business was merely to copy papers, number and file them, and generally do the duty of what is now called a clerk in the Foreign Department. But in the title-page of his 'Rights of Man,' he styles himself 'Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Congress of the United States in the Late War.' While in this office, he published a series of appeals on the struggle between Great Britain and the colonies. In 1777 he was obliged to resign his secretaryship on account of a quarrel with Silas Deane, American agent in France.
    
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    Arthur Lee Argues with Deane and Franklin
    
    Arthur Lee Bio Sketch: "...... The effort to enforce the stamp act which called forth the Westmoreland declaration determined him to study law in order more effectively to assist the colonies in obtaining redress from the heavy taxation laid upon them. He studied law in the Temple, London, 1766-70, and practised in London, 1770-76, meantime studying the Colonial questions and discussing the Townshend acts and other aggressive measures proposed by Parliament. At this time he won considerable fame as a writer, signing himself "Monitor" and "Junius Americanus." He was also the author of "An Appeal to the English Nation." He was a leading member of the "Supporters of the Bill of Rights," organized for the discussion of the measures of the British ministry and the restoration to the American colonies of the right to regulate taxes through their own representatives.
    
    In supporting the resolutions adopted by the society, of which Lee was the author, he sustained an able discussion with the unknown author of the "Letters of Junius." He gained the friendship of Burke, Priestly, Dunning, Baire and Sir Willlain Jones, and was admitted to a fellowship in the Royal society. He was appointed by the general court of Massachusetts in 1770 as representative for that colony in London as associate with Benjamin Franklin, and in 1775, when Richard Penn reached London with the last petition from the Continental congress and the appeal to the English people, of which his brother, Richard Henry Lee, was the author, he undertook to have the petition reach the king, but in vain.
    
    He was appointed by congress, with Franklin, Jay and Dickinson, to open correspondence with friends of America in Europe and was made the secret agent of the committee in London, and he opened negotiations with the French government which led to his residence in Paris during the spring and summer of 1776. In 1776 congress appointed him a joint commissioner with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane to secure a treaty of alliance with France, and in 1777 he was intrusted with special missions to the governments of Spain and Prussia, and in October, 1778, was continued as sole commissioner to Spain, also acting in the same capacity to the court of Prussia but residing in Paris. His frequent quarrels with Franklin and Deane led to his recall in the autumn of 1779. He was a representative in the general assembly of Virginia, 1781; a delegate to the Continental congress, 1781-84; Indian commissioner in western New York and Pennsylvania, 1784, and a member of the board of treasury, 1784-89. He was opposed to the adoption of the Federal constitution, and his opposition appears to have been due to excessive distrust in the motives that actuated his fellow patriots and his concern for the rights of the colonists.
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI, page 373
    
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    George Washington Drops in for Dinner!
    
    From Washington's Travels in New England - A Chronological Itinerary, we have:
    
    "The photograph (apparently in this publication in book form, not on the web) shows the Webb-Deane-Stevens House and Museum in Wethersfield, Connecticut, managed by the Connecticut Society of Colonial Dames of America, where General Washington met with the comte de Rochambeau on 21 May 1781.
    
    1775:
    "Washington lodged the night of June 29-30 in the home of Silas Deane and his second wife, Elizabeth Saltonstall Deane, in Wethersfield, then passed through Durham, Middletown, and New Britain.
    
    1781
    "On May 19th Washington established his headquarters in the home of Joseph Webb, Jr. in Wethersfield. Abigail Chester Webb was Washington's hostess. The Webb house is next door to the Deane house where Washington had lodged in 1775. Silas Deane's first wife Methitable Webb was the widow of Joseph Webb, Sr."
    
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    Who is Ralph Izard?
    
    [Note: Ralph Izard was one of the cadre of opponents recruited by Arthur Lee to depose and ruin Silan Deane. He wrote a letter to Congress to support Deane's recall, which was detrimental to Deane in his efforts to try to reconcile with Congress. The contents of his letter apparently contained nothing but unsubstantiated complaints and reveals personal amibitions unfulfilled, ie being uninformed about the Treaty of Paris negotiations, with which he actually had no official capacity in, but felt "neglected". nmt]
    
    "IZARD, Ralph, statesman, was born at "The Elms," near Charleston, S.C., in 1742; son of Henry and Margaret (Johnson) Izard; grandson of Ralph and Magdalene Elizabeth (Chastaigner) Izard and of Governor Robert Johnson, of South Carolina, and great grandson of Ralph Izard, who came to America from England during the reign of Queen Anne, and was the founder of the South Carolina branch of the family; and also great grandson of Governor Sir Nathaniel Johnson.
    
    Ralph Izard was early sent to England and placed at school at Hackney, finishing his education at Christ college, Cambridge. Returning to America, he took possession of his estate in South Carolina, but spent much of his time in New York, where he met his future wife, Alice, daughter of Peter De Lancey, of Westchester, N.Y., and niece of James De Lancey, lieutenant- governor of the province. He was married in 1767, and in 1771 returned to England and residence in London.
    
    At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he made several attempts to intercede with the king in behalf of the colonists,but without success. In 1777 he removed with his family to France, and soon after was appointed by congress commissioner to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Considering it inexpedient to proceed to the court of Tuscany, he continued his residence in Paris, where he supported Arthur Lee in opposition to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane. When Commodore Gillon was sent from South Carolina to Europe to purchase frigates, and for that purpose to obtain a loan, he could not effect the object on the security of the state government alone. Mr. Izard then pledged his whole estate, and the vessels were secured.
    
    Through alleged misrepresentations, the Continental congress, in 1779, passed resolutions to recall Mr. Izard, and he returned to the United States in July, 1780, and reported at Washington's headquarters. He influenced Washington to send General Greene to take command of the southern army, for which service he received the thanks of the governor of South Carolina. He was a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental congress, 1782-83, and U.S. senator, 1789-95. He was president pro tempore of the senate from May 31, 1794, to Feb. 20, 1795, serving in the first and second sessions of the 3d congress. He was a founder of the College of Charleston and a trustee of that institution, 1791-1804.
    
    Of his children, George (q.v.)became governor of Arkansas Territory; Ralph was a lieutenant in the U.S. navy, and served with distinction in the war with Tripoli; and Henry was married to Emma, daughter of Arthur Middleton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. See Correspondence of Mr. Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, from the Year 1774 to 1804, with a Short  Memoir (1844), by his daughter, Anne Izard Deas. He died at South Bay, near Charleston, S.C., May 30, 1804."
    
    The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI
    
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    The Lee Brothers The Other Side of the Story
    
    From the Stratford Hall Plantation Page... the other side of the story...
    
    "The careers of William and Arthur (Lee) were impeded by bitter debates with Silas Deane, each questioning the other's allegiance to his country. The controversy divided Congress in a vituperative debate. The political infighting resulted in the reorganization of the diplomatic corps and all but one of the positions held by the two brothers were eliminated. Neither brother was ever reappointed to an important government post.
    
    The Silas Deane affair seemed to have embittered not only William and Arthur but the Lee family as a whole. Accusations, though unproven and unfounded, tarnished the Lee family name. Ever courageous, the brothers defended one another with the same vigor and spirit that brought them so much respect and admiration in their pursuit of American liberty."
    
    Note: These two brothers were also brothers to the two Lee brothers, Richard and Frank Lightfoot Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence. These four brothers were, in addition, apparently cousins to General Lighthorse Harry Lee, Revolutionary War General and father of Robert E. Lee, Civil War General. It is ironic to note that General Lighthorse Harry Lee also met with a sad fate, eventually being broke and confined to debtor's prison. Another Revolutionary meets a sad end.