Col. Joseph Dean

Information on Joseph Dean, his parents and his siblings:
“... William Ralston married, about 1757, Mrs. Sarah Dean, widow of Rev. William Dean. The latter, who was a native of Ireland, settled in Nantmeal township, Chester County, where he died July 9, 1748. In his will, dated July 7, 1748, he mentions his wife, Sarah, and children, Joseph, William, John, Sarah and Benjamin; also a brother, Alexander Dean, who was expected from Ireland that summer. Mr. Dean's grave is marked by a large tablet containing this inscription:
Here lies the Body of the Reverend William Dean
Who departed this life July 9, 1743.
In Yonder Sacred house I spent my Breath
Now silent mouldering here I ly in Death
Tis silent Lips shall wake and yet declare
A dread Amen to truths they published there.

The sons of the Rev. William and Sarah Dean were prominent men in Chester and Philadelphia Counties, the most noted of them having been Colonel Joseph Dean, who was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, August 10, 1738. He settled in Philadelphia, where he became a shipping merchant upon a large scale. We find his signature attached to the Non-Importation Agreement of October 25, 1766, and, ten years later, the Assembly placed him upon the Committee of Safety. Subsequently, upon the organization of the Board of War, he was made a member of that body. In January 1781, the Supreme Executive Council appointed him one of the auditors "to settle and adjust the accounts of the books of this state in the service of the United States," and in October, of the same year, he. was chosen a Warden of the port of Philadelphia. In 1790 he was selected to fill the post of public auctioneer. The death of Colonel Dean occurred September 9, 1793, during the yellow fever scourge which then devastated Philadelphia.

The maiden-name of William Ralston's wife we do not know. She was a native of the north of Ireland, and had accompanied her first husband, Rev. William Dean, from County Antrim to America, about 1740. She died in Philadelphia October 13, 1798, and was buried in the burial-ground belonging to the Second Presbyterian Church, where a tombstone was erected containing this inscription:
In Memory of Sarah Ralston
Wife of William Ralston
Who departed this life
The 13th Day of October Anno Domini 1798
Aged 76 Years.

So far as we have knowledge, they were the parents of one child only, Robert Ralston, the founder of the Ralston family in Philadelphia, and a man of the largest possible distinction in his day, as one of the Quaker City's merchant princes, and as a philanthropist of nation-wide celebrity...”

Source: Old Philadelphia Families. By Frank Willing Leach. Published in The North American issue of 7 July 1912.

Inactive Duty Militia: Joseph Dean, Esqr., Rank Lt. Col., Lieutenancy: Phila. City, County Battalion: 4th, Dated: 1780-1781.

After the American Revolutionary War he acquired large quantities of real estate previously the property of attainted individuals (Loyalists).

Portrait painted by Charles Willson Peale about 1785 [at age 47] (canvas 30” X 25”, Half Length, “white hair, brown eyes, light gray coat and waistcoat”), in possession of William F. Dean, Esq. of Philadelphia. “One of the many Philadelphia merchants who worked to both public and personal profit during the Revolution. He was a member of the Board of War, and a partner of John Bayard [q.v.] in outfitting privateers. His portrait has long been attributed to Charles Willson Peale on stylistic grounds. It is exceptional, however, in that the paint is much more heavily laid on than was Peale’s wont. It has not been overpainted.”
Source: : Sellers, Chas. Coleman: “Portraits & Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale”, in “Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc.”.
.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Sep 9 2023, 0:21:52 UTC