DANA, FRANCIS (1743-1811), American jurist, was born in Charlestown (Mass.), June He graduated at Harvard in 1762, was admitted to the bar in 1767, became a leader of the Sons of Liberty, and in I 7 74 was a member of the first provincial congress of Massachusetts. He was a member of the Massa chusetts Executive Council (1776-8o) and a delegate to the Con tinental Congress (1776-78). In the autumn of 1779 he was appointed secretary to John Adams, who had been selected as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of peace and com merce with Great Britain, and in Dec. 178o he was appointed diplomatic representative to the Russian Government. He re mained at St. Petersburg from 1781 to 1783, but was never formally received by the empress Catherine. In 1784 he was again chosen a delegate to Congress, and in 1785 he became a justice of the Massachusetts supreme court, over which he pre sided (1791-1806) with ability and distinction. He was an earnest advocate of the adoption of the Federal constitution, was a member of the Massachusetts convention which ratified that in strument and was one of the most influential advisers of the leaders of the Federalist party. He died at Cambridge (Mass.), April 25, 1811.
His SOD, RICHARD HENRY DANA (1 was born in Cambridge (Mass.), Nov. 15, 1787. After graduation from Harvard in 1808 he was admitted to the bar; but literature was his absorbing interest. From 1815 until 1821 he was associated with Jared Sparks and Edward T. Channing in the editorial con trol of the North American Review, and in I 8 2 I-2 2 he put forth a miscellany, The Idle Man. He published his first volume of Poems in 1827; and in 1833 appeared his Poems and Prose Writ ings, republished in 185o in two volumes. An English edition, The Buccaneer and Other Poems, was issued in 1844. Dana died in Boston, Feb. 2, 1879.