20 Facts About Silas Deane

The younger Silas Deane was able to obtain a full scholarship to Yale and graduated in 1758.

In 1761, Silas Deane was admitted to the bar and practiced law for a short time outside of Hartford before moving to Wethersfield, Connecticut, and establishing a thriving business as a merchant.

Silas Deane married twice, both times to wealthy widows from Wethersfield.

In 1770, Silas Deane married Elizabeth Evards, granddaughter of Connecticut Governor Gurdon Saltonstall of the Massachusetts Saltonstall family.

In 1768, Silas Deane was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives; in 1769, he was appointed to the Wethersfield Committee of Correspondence; and from 1774 to 1776, he served as a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental Congress.

Silas Deane excelled in the committee work of Congress, helping to coordinate the attack on Fort Ticonderoga and to establish the United States Navy.

Silas Deane began negotiating with French Foreign Minister Comte de Vergennes as soon as he arrived in Paris.

Silas Deane tacitly approved the plot of Scotsman James Aitken to destroy Royal Navy stores and dockyards in Portsmouth and Plymouth, England, on behalf of the Continental cause.

Silas Deane recruited the services of several foreign soldiers to the cause, including Marquis de Lafayette, Baron Johann de Kalb, Thomas Conway, Casimir Pulaski, and Baron von Steuben.

Lovell only mentioned giving a report to Congress about European affairs, and Silas Deane fully expected to be sent back to Paris within a few months.

Congress offered him $10,000 in depreciated Continental currency in compensation, but Silas Deane refused, believing the amount too small.

Silas Deane was allowed to return to Paris in 1780 to settle his affairs and attempt to assemble the records in dispute.

Silas Deane's correspondence was then forwarded to General Henry Clinton, who provided copies to Loyalist James Rivington to publish in his newspaper Rivington's Royal Gazette in New York City.

Silas Deane was then accused of treason by his fellow colonists.

Silas Deane toured several manufacturing towns in England in late 1783, considering plans for steam engines that could operate grist mills, even consulting James Watt for advice.

Silas Deane tried to attract investors for a planned canal linking Lake Champlain and the St Lawrence River.

Silas Deane's condition depleted his remaining money and forced him to depend on the charity of friends.

In 1789, Silas Deane planned to return to North America in an attempt to recoup his lost fortune and reputation.

In 1959, historian Julian P Boyd suggested that Deane might have been poisoned by Bancroft, because Bancroft might have felt threatened by Deane's possible testimony to Congress.

Deane's home in Wethersfield, now the Silas Deane House, has been restored, declared a National Historic Landmark, and opened to the public as a part of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum.