DEANE, James, Indian missionary, born in Groton, Connecticut, 20 August 1748; died in Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, 10 September 1823. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1773. In 1773'4 he was a missionary to the Canadian Indians, and he was afterward employed by congress to pacify the northern Indians, a work for which he was peculiarly fitted, being familiar with their language, having been, when twelve years of age, associated with the Rev. Mr. Mosely, a missionary to the Six Nations. During the Revolutionary war he was commissioned as a major, and served as an Indian agent and interpreter at Fort Stanwix. He was taken prisoner by the Indians, and would have been killed but for the pleadings of their women. At the close of the war the Oneidas granted him a tract of land two miles square, near Rome, Oneida County, which he afterward exchanged for a tract in Westmoreland, whither he removed in 1786. He was for a long time a judge in Oneida County, and held other offices of trust. Deansville was named in his honor. He wrote an essay on Indian mythology, which is lost.