M.S. on Peter the Great. Czar of Russia. Born 1672. Died 1725, 1724

John Dean (1679-1761) born in Nottingham, survived the wreck of the "Nottingham Galley", served in the Russian Navy from 1712 to 1722, and was later appointed British Consul in the ports of Flanders and at Ostend. He died in Wilford, near Nottingham, after he was assaulted and robbed in a field behind his house

Manuscript of "Observations" on Peter the Great, the Russian government and politics, and Russian naval power, composed shortly after Dean had completed ten years service with the Russian fleet (1712-1722). Written in the third person, the piece details Dean's meetings with and opinions of Peter, his court, his intellectual interests and activities, including his love of medicine, and describes an engagement with Sweden and a crossing of the Caspian Sea