Silas Deane - Later Life

Later Life

Deane eventually settled in the Netherlands until after the treaty of peace had been signed, after which he lived in England in a state of poverty. He published his defence in An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America (Hartford, Conn., and London, 1784).

In 1789 Deane planned to set sail back to America to try to recoup his lost fortune but mysteriously took ill and died on September 23 of that year before his ship set sail. Some historians argue that he was poisoned by Edward Bancroft, an American double agent with the British who had been employed by both John Adams and Silas Deane for gathering intelligence during the Revolutionary War and may have felt threatened by a potential testimony from Deane to the American Congress. As it turns out Silas Deane was never found guilty of Arthur Lee's accusations. His granddaughter Philura through her husband pressed his case before Congress, and his family was eventually paid $37,000 in 1841 on the ground that a former audit was "ex parte, erroneous, and a gross injustice to Silas Deane"; about fifty years after his death.

Deane married twice, both wealthy widows from Wethersfield; Mehitable Webb in 1763 (who died in 1767), and Elizabeth Saltonstall Evards in 1770. His second wife was a granddaughter of Connecticut Governor Gurdon Saltonstall of the Massachusetts Saltonstall family.

His stepson was Continental Army Officer Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb of the 9th Connecticut Regiment-later consolidated into the 2nd Connecticut Regiment which became part of the 3rd Connecticut Regiment which became the 1st Connecticut Regiment