DIMAN, Byron, governor of Rhode Island, born in Bristol, R. I., in 1795; died there, 1 August 1865. He was educated under the private tuition of Alexander V. Griswold, afterward bishop of Massachusetts, and at an early age entered the counting house of James De Wolf. He afterward engaged extensively in the whale fishery, and, as that declined, turned his attention to manufacturing. He was for many years either a state senator or a member of the lower house, and was lieutenant governor of the state for three years. In 1846 he was elected governor, in the exciting canvass attending the disruption of the "Law and Order" party, and served one term. Governor Diman had a remarkable memory, and was fond of antiquarian research.

His son, Jeremiah Lewis, clergyman, born in Bristol, R. I., 1 May 1831 ; died in Providence, R. I., 3 February 1881, was graduated at Brown in 1851, and afterward studied in the universities of Halle, Heidelberg, and Berlin. Returning to America, he was graduated in 1856 at the theological seminary in Andover, Massachusetts, and was pastor of the 1st Congregational Church in Fall River in 1856'60, and of the Harvard Church at Brookline in 1860'4. In 1864 he was appointed professor of history and political economy in Brown University. In 1870 he received the degree of D.D. Many of his sermons and addresses have been published, and he contributed many articles to periodicals. He published in book form "The Theistic Argument" (Boston, 1881), and " Orations and Essays " (1882). His "Memoirs" have been written by Caroline Hazard (Boston, 1887).