Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Deacon, James
DEACON, JAMES (d. 1750), miniature-painter, was talented as an artist and musician. In 1746 the miniature-painter C. F. Zincke was obliged, his eyesight failing, to give up his house in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and retire from his profession. Deacon then took this house and the goodwill, no doubt, of the older painter's business. He said to have produced some masterly portraits. In the print room of the British Museum there are miniatures by him of the marine painter Samuel Scott and his wife. He had not long been established in his profession when, attending as a witness at the Old Bailey, apparently at the 'Black Sessions,' he caught the gaol fever and died young in May 1750.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, ed. 1849; Redgrave's Dict, of Artists.]