Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/254

 contemporaries always called him doctor, it does not appear that he had any academical claim to that degree, and it is observable that in his epitaph he is simply styled ‘Thomas Deacon.’ His wife Sarah died on 4 July 1745, aged 45. The sad fate of three of their sons has been already mentioned; another, Edward Erastus Deacon, M.D., died on 13 March 1813, aged 72 (, Memorials of St. Ann's Church, Manchester, pp. 83–5).

Canon Parkinson, in a note in his edition of Byrom's ‘Remains’ (i. 500), remarks, with reference to Deacon: ‘It is much to be regretted that this admirable scholar did not receive encouragement according to his merits. His letters in this work show him to have been a complete master of the English language, of a ready wit and indomitable spirit; one who ought to have been engaged in a more congenial task than elaborating his learned yet somewhat arid catechism, and carrying on controversies with men incapable of appreciating his merits and their own immeasurable inferiority.’

Deacon's works are:
 * 1) ‘The Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning Purgatory proved to be contrary to Catholic Tradition, and inconsistent with the necessary Duty of praying for the Dead, as practiced in the ancient Church,’ London, 1718, 12mo, dedicated to the Rev. Thomas Brett, LL.D.
 * 2) ‘A Communion Office, taken partly from Primitive Liturgies, and partly from the first English Reformed Common Prayer Book, together with Offices for the Confirmation and the Visitation of the Sick,’ London, 1718, 8vo. The work is entered in the Chetham Library catalogue under Deacon's name, probably with good reason, though some writers doubt whether Brett was not the principal compiler of these ‘Nonjuring Offices.’ The work is reprinted in vol. v. of ‘Fragmenta Liturgica,’ edited by the Rev. Peter Hall, Bath, 1848, 16mo.
 * 3) A translation of Tillemont's ‘History of the Arians and of the Council of Nice,’ 2 vols., London, 1721, 8vo.
 * 4) ‘Remarks upon the Rev. Mr. Samuel Downe's Historical Account of the Reviews of the Liturgy of the Church of England.’ This forms the appendix to a work attributed to John Griffin, M.A., and entitled ‘The Common Christian instructed in some necessary Points of Religion,’ London, 1722.
 * 5) A translation of a portion of Tillemont's ‘Ecclesiastical Memoirs,’ 2 vols., London, 1733, fol.
 * 6) ‘A Compleat Collection of Devotions, both publick and private, taken from the Apostolical Constitutions, the ancient Liturgies, and the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England,’ London, 1734, 8vo. Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson sold in June 1857 a copy of this work different from the ordinary copies, and probably unique. It has the usual titles, but it also has a fifth title of a very remarkable character, viz. ‘The Order of the Divine Offices of the Orthodox British Church, containing the Holy Liturgy … as authorised by the Bishops of the said Church.’ This title could not have been publicly circulated. The first part of the ‘Devotions,’ containing the Public Offices, was reprinted in 1848 as vol. vi. of Hall's ‘Fragmenta Liturgica.’
 * 7) ‘The Form of Admitting a Convert into the Communion of the Church; a Litany, together with Prayers in behalf of the Catholic Church; Prayers on the Death of Members of the Church,’ 1746. The second part of this work was reprinted at Shrewsbury, 1797, 8vo, and is reproduced in vol. ii. of ‘Fragmenta Liturgica.’
 * 8) ‘A Full, True, and Comprehensive View of Christianity; containing a short Historical Account of Religion from the Creation of the World to the Fourth Century after Christ; as also the Complete Duty of a Christian in relation to Faith, Practice, Worship, and Rituals. … The whole succinctly and fully laid down in two Catechisms,’ London, 1747, 8vo. A vigorous attack on this work and on Deacon's political and religious opinions was made by the Rev. Josiah Owen in his ‘Jacobite and Nonjuring Principles freely examined,’ Manchester, 1748. This elicited a reply from Thomas Percival, F.S.A., in ‘A Letter to the Clergy of the Collegiate Church of Manchester,’ 1748, which was followed by a second pamphlet by Owen, entitled ‘Dr. Deacon try'd before his own Tribunal,’ 1748.



DEACON, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1799–1845), journalist and author, eldest son of a London merchant, was born on 26 July 1799 in Caroline Place, Mecklenburgh