William Duane (May 12, 1760 – November 24, 1835) was an Irish-American journalist and newspaper publisher. He founded the Bengal Journal in Calcutta, British India in 1791 but the newspaper was shut down by John Shore, the Governor-General of India due to libel against the French royalist government in exile. Duane founded a second newspaper, The World, but he was arrested and deported for libel by publishing articles critical of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. Duane emigrated to the United States and began working at the Philadelphia Aurora and helped elect

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

as the 3rd president of the United States through his newspaper support. He was rewarded for his support of Jefferson with an assignment as adjutant general of the U.S. Army.

Early life

While some sources cite his place of birth as Lake Champlain, New York, he was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He was born to Irish immigrants Anastasia Sarsfied and John Duane. His father died when Duane was seven and his mother brought them back to Ireland. Duane learned the printing trade as an apprentice in London. He angered his mother and lost the small family inheritance when he married a woman of the Anglican faith, Catherine Corcoran. Duane decided to move to

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Career

He moved to

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in 1788, and founded the '' Bengal Journal'' in 1791. Duane began publishing articles in support of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and an unsubstantiated report of the death of

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

during a campaign against

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...

. The

Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...

John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth (5 October 1751 – 14 February 1834) was a British official of the East India Company who served as Governor-General of Bengal from 1793 to 1798. In 1798 he was created Baron Teignmouth in the Peerage of ...

shut down the ''Bengal Journal'' for libel against the French royalist government in exile in Calcutta. Duane founded his second newspaper, ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'', which he used to publish articles highlighting how the

functioned in India. These articles again angered John Shore and Duane was arrested and deported for libel in 1794. He returned to London and worked for the Telegraph until he emigrated to the United States. Before he died of yellow fever on September 8, 1798,

Benjamin Franklin Bache Benjamin Franklin Bache (August 12, 1769 – September 10, 1798) was an American journalist, printer and publisher. He founded the ''Philadelphia Aurora'', a newspaper that supported Jeffersonian philosophy. He frequently attacked the Federalis ...

hired Duane to work on the ''

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

'' newspaper and printing business. Duane married fellow journalist

Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache (November 7, 1770 – May 28, 1836) was an American printer and editor. Born in Saint Croix, then part of the Danish West Indies, she was raised in Philadelphia. Bache ran the ''Aurora'' newspaper with her first and se ...

at the Christ Church in Philadelphia on June 28, 1800. They lived at 316 Market Street some time after their union. Duane began writing articles in support of

's campaign for President. He filed for U.S. citizenship after being threatened with deportation under the

Alien and Sedition Act The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship, the Alien Friends Act allowed th ...

. Jefferson attributed his presidential victory to this paper. Jefferson named Duane a lieutenant colonel, and by the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

he was an adjutant general. He died in Philadelphia in 1835 and was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

.''Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C''
/ref> William Duane (journalist) tombstone

William John Duane William John Duane (May 9, 1780 – September 27, 1865) was an American politician and lawyer from Pennsylvania. Duane served a brief term as United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1833. His refusal to withdraw Federal deposits from the Seco ...

was his son.

Bibliography

A Hand Book for Infantry: Containing the First Principles of Military Discipline, Founded on the Rational Method Intended to Explain in a Familiar and Practical Manner, For the Use of the Military Force of the United States, The Modern Improvements in the Discipline and Movement of Armies
Philadelphia, 1814
A Visit to Columbia, in the Years 1822 & 1823
Thomas H. Palmer, Philadelphia, 1826

Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duane, William 1760 births 1835 deaths 18th-century newspaper publishers (people) 19th-century newspaper publishers (people) Adjutants general of the United States Army American male journalists American expatriates in India Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Irish people in colonial India Irish journalists Newspaper founders Pre-Confederation Newfoundland and Labrador people People of the Province of New York People of the War of 1812