Table of Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Content

Restrictions

Subject Headings

Administrative Information

Related Material

Contents:

I. Correspondence: 1753 - 1795

II. Writings: 1772 - 1786

III. Business and Legal Papers: 1753 - 1788

IV. Accounts: 1765 - 1781

V. Memorials to congress: 1835

Silas Deane Papers

A Guide to the Silas Deane Papers at the Connecticut Historical Society

Biographical Sketch

Silas Deane was born December 24, 1737 in Ledyard, CT, son of Silas Dean (sic), a blacksmith and land speculator, and Sarah Barker Dean, formerly of Marshfield, MA. Following his 1758 graduation from Yale College, Deane taught school in Hartford and read for the bar. One of his pupils was Edward Bancroft, later a notorious doctor turned British agent, who served as Secretary to the American Commission in Paris.

Deane met his first wife, Mehitable Webb, while settling the estate of her late husband, Joseph Webb. Deane and Mehitable Webb married in 1763. They had one son, Jesse. Mehitable Deane died in 1767. Three years later Deane married Elizabeth Saltonstall, granddaughter of a governor and daughter of a general. Through his marriages Deane gained financial security and earned social prominence in Wethersfield. He pursued his legal profession but was engaged chiefly as a merchant and West Indian trader.

Deane was active in his community's church and represented Wethersfield for several terms in the Connecticut Assembly. He participated enthusiastically in the protests against British commercial policy. As Secretary of the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence, Deane attended meetings and conventions to discuss ways of expressing the colonies' complaints. In 1774 the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence appointed Deane, Roger Sherman and Eliphalet Dyer as delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In this position Deane served on 40 committees, being especially effective on the naval committee and as chairman of ways and means. He disliked his fellow delegate, Roger Sherman, and their incongeniality later hurt Deane as Sherman opposed him politically. Deane orchestrated the financial backing for the daring capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

In Fall 1775 delegates to the Continental Congress were elected rather than appointed, and Sherman's organization defeated Deane. Deane had made such an impression in Philadelphia, however, that he was chosen by the Committee on Secrecy to procure supplies as Congress' agent to France. Additionally, Deane was chosen by the Committee on Secret Correspondence to promote a treaty of alliance. He departed March 16, 1776 and arrived at Bordeaux in May. In addition to his official duties, Deane had private business assignments with the Morris, Willing Company of Philadelphia and for his own family enterprises. Deane was to purchase supplies and materiel for Congress with money or credit from the sale of American commodities in Europe. He was to receive a commission of 5%. It was a daunting situation for Deane who did not have any contacts and did not speak French.

Deane established a relationship with Hortalez and Cie, a firm devised by the French government as a cover for trade with the colonies. The firm was headed by Caron de Beaumarchais. Through this and other deals, Deane managed to ship supplies and guns to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The supplies arrived in time to assure the victory at Saratoga. This in turn convinced the French to sign a treaty of alliance. Congress had created an American Commission at Paris to supersede its individual agent. Deane was named a Commissioner along with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee. The three signed the treaty of alliance Feb. 6, 1778. In March, Deane's enemies in Congress and the friends and family of Arthur Lee, his antagonistic fellow commissioner in Paris, demanded his recall to report on the situation in Europe and account for funds spent. Deane would have preferred to postpone his return but, on the advice of Franklin, sailed on D'Estaing's flagship with Conrad A. Gerard, the first French minister to the United States. They arrived in Philadelphia in July.

Congress then proceeded to ignore Deane's efforts to meet, make his report, and present his accounts for payment. He had used many of his own funds for the government's business and commissions were owed him, but Deane was thought to have misused government funds for his own interest. As time passed and Deane became aware that his enemies in Congress were humiliating him, he grew impatient and wrote a public statement which was taken up by the press. Congress resented this action. During the year in which Deane waited on Congress he was nominated for a seat in the upper house of the Connecticut legislature but did not serve. In August 1779 Congress offered him $10,000 in depreciated currency which he refused. He was determined to return to France to collect the vouchers needed to substantiate his claims. After attending to family commercial business in Virginia, Deane returned to France in March 1780 as a private citizen.

In Paris Franklin was supportive and hospitable. Deane prepared his accounts, but again, Congress delayed reviewing them. Congress had appointed Thomas Barclay, the Consul at Paris, to the task but claimed he had not the authority to settle them. Deane moved to Ghent to save money and avoid imposing on Franklin. Deane's health and fortunes deteriorated and his morale suffered keenly at the frustration of the delays. Eventually he moved to England and lived for a while on the charity of friends, among them Dr. Edward Bancroft, the erstwhile secretary of the American Commissioners in Paris, whose role as a double agent for the British would not be revealed until about 1870. Deane received discouraging reports from friends at home, Robert Morris among them, about the almost total erosion of the currency and the fiscally irresponsible Congress. In his own despondency he came to think a negotiated settlement of the war was advisable and wrote in this vein to friends, perhaps conniving at the interception of the letters by the British. They were published by the Tory publicist in New York, Rivington, and caused an outcry of treason. At the nadir of his fortunes and perspective on the war, Deane was unaware that with the intervention of the French navy, the military balance changed quickly and, as the Rivington letters appeared, Cornwallis's surrender was imminent.

Deane longed to return home but his loyal brother, Barnabas, warned he would not be accepted at that time. Remaining in London, Silas Deane explored many ideas for the promotion of post-war Anglo American commerce. Of special interest was a scheme for a canal between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain which he discussed with Lord Sheffield and Lord Dorchester (Guy Carleton), the Governor-General of Canada. Full of hope for such prospects, he borrowed money to board ship at Deal on September 23, 1789. However, before sailing Deane suffered a violent abdominal attack which caused paralysis and death. Suspicions of poisoning by Dr. Bancroft, an authority on poisons, have not been proved. He was buried at Deal. Barnabas later thanked and reimbursed a kind American, Theodore Hopkins, who attended to the interment of the body. In 1795 Deane's son, Jesse Deane, was to receive proceeds from the sale of his father's diamond encrusted gold snuff box.

Silas Deane's granddaughter and only heir, Philura Deane Alden and her husband, Horatio Alden of Hartford, prepared a Memorial to Congress in 1835 documenting Silas Deane's claims for money owed him by the government. The Memorial contains accounts and important documents such as Lafayette's commission. In 1842 both houses awarded the heirs $37,000, a partial restitution, and described the original audit by a Congressional Committee under the chairmanship of his old enemy, Arthur Lee, as "ex parte, erroneous and a gross injustice to Silas Deane."

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Scope and Content

The Silas Deane papers in The Connecticut Historical Society were acquired in different lots at different times in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most were donated by Isabel Alden Thomas, the great- granddaughter of Silas Deane and last direct heir. Some were printed in Volumes II and XXIII of the Society's Collections, some microfilmed and some not reproduced at all. The 1835 Memorial to Congress by Philura Deane Alden and Horatio Alden was acquired from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 1875. The bound volume containing the manuscripts of the Memorial which included the correspondence of Robert Morris, Caron de Beaumarchais, the Compte de Vergennes and other notables of the period, the original commissions of LaFayette and DeKalb and Silas Deane's own accounts prepared and presented to Congress, was found on May 15, 1871 in the waste paper bin of the Register's File Room of the Treasury and retrieved by a clerk, D.S. Green. It was acquired by the Society through the efforts of J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles Hoadley.

The collection consists predominately of correspondence, personal and business. Notable correspondents include: Robert Morris, Caron de Beaumarchais, the Compte de Vergennes, Jonathan Trumbull, Benjamin Gale, Oliver Ellsworth and William Drayton.

Materials are organized into six series based based largely on form.

Series I: Correspondence consists of letters to and from Silas Deane. Notable correspondents include Robert Morris, Caron de Beaumarchais, the Compte de Vergennes, Jonathan Trumbull, Benjamin Gale, Oliver Ellsworth and William Drayton.

Series II: Writings consists of memoires, essays, personal notes and petitions written by Deane, intended for publication or speech.

Series III: Business and Legal Papers relate mostly to shipping and shipping interests, particularly regarding contracts with the British Government over the supply of spar masts from the North American colonies.

Series IV: Accounts contains items concerning Dean's expenses while in France, England and the Low Countries, as well as accounts held with Jean Chartles DeBay, Haller Geradot, Ferdinand Grand, Nicholas LaFarque and Jonathan William.

Series V: Memorial to Congress comprises documents supporting the claims of Silas Deane's heirs against the US government

Series VI: Barnabas Deane holds the correspondence of Silas' brother, Barnabas, as well as a small number of business and legal papers. Correspondents include John Hancock and Jeremiah Wadsworth.

The documents are arranged chronologically within each series except in Series V: Memorial to Congress where the original order is kept. Folders are numbered sequentially within each series. An index of correspondents is appended. Some letters are contemporary copies by Deane, his secretary or the secretaries of his correspondents. There are several photocopies from other collections. The number of items listed for each folder represents the number of pieces of paper, rather than the number of letters or entities.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions on access to the collection.

Use Restrictions

Use of the material requires compliance with the Connecticut Historical Society's Research Center regulations.

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Subject Headings

Genre Forms

Geographic Names

Personal Names

Corporate Names

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Item, Collection Title, Collection number (Box #, Folder #). Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.

Processing Details

Original paper finding aid created by Anne Willard in 1989.

EAD finding aid updated to EAD 2002 in December 2010.

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Related Material

An index of catalog cards is available to aid access to this collection and material in other collections. Access is through writer, recipient and date. The card catalog is located in the Research Center reading room.

There is also a card catalog, listing access to correspondent associated with the collection. this card index is located in the mss stacks, alongside the collection.

Microfilm copy available.

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