♂William Deane

William Deane (died 1634) was a landholder of South Chard, in the parish of Chard in Somerset, England, and the father of Walter Deane, one of the early settlers of Taunton, in Plymouth Colony^W. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Walter Deane (died after 1693). Less than three years after his death, Walter sailed from Weymouth for New England with six servants.

Family

He was probably the son of Walter Deane of South Chard and Joan Walsele, who were married at Buckland St Mary on 12 November 1565. His father’s will of 1585 made him executor, and his mother named him again in her own will of 1597.

His wife’s name is not known. She is not mentioned in his will, which suggests she had died before him. He left five sons, William, Thomas, John, Walter and Isaac, and four daughters, Susan, Ellianor, Margerie and Elizabeth. Margerie was already married, to a Strong, and had a son, John.

His will

On 22 July 1634, “sicke of bodie but of sound and perfect memorie”, he made his will. He gave twenty shillings to the poor of Chardland and shared out the leases of his grounds among his younger sons. John received the rest of the term in Broadfield and Ham Meade, and was to pay each of his four sisters four pounds a year out of them. Walter and Isaac were to hold the grounds called Wilbeere and Cantes together, and Walter was also given a chest, a bed and a bible. Thomas, “otherwise in competent manner provided for”, received only two silver spoons for himself and his wife, “as a remembrance of my fatherly love”.

Susan, Ellianor and Elizabeth each received £73 6s 8d, with bedding, barrels and a third part of his wool. Margerie Strong received a brass pot, his best cauldron and ten pounds, and her son John Strong five pounds. His eldest son, William, was to be executor. When the will was read over, he explained that if a daughter married and died before her portion fell due, it was to be paid to her husband. One of its witnesses signed as William Cogam, most likely William Cogan, a tanner of South Chard whose daughter Eleanor became Walter’s wife.

He died before 11 October 1634, when his son William proved the will at London in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury^W.

Notes

The will

The will of William Deane of Southchard, dated 22 July 1634 and proved 11 October 1634 (register Seager, 86), was printed in full in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register 51 (1897), pp. 432–433, from a copy sent by William Dean of London. The editor added that Dean “thought there were strong reasons for believing that the testator was the father of John and Walter Deane who settled at Taunton in New England”, and that he agreed. The editor also took Margerie Strong as the first wife of Elder John Strong; H. Clark Dean (NEHGR 147, 1993) discussed the Strong question again in his study of Walter’s wife, Eleanor Cogan.

Parents

John B. Threlfall, “Additions to the Deane Ancestry in England”, NEHGR 139 (1985), pp. 324–325, calls Walter Deane of South Chard “the earliest proven ancestor of John and Walter Deane” of Taunton and their grandfather. He gives Walter’s marriage to Joan Walsele at Buckland St Mary on 12 November 1565; Walter’s will of 7 July 1585, proved 10 July 1591 (Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 56 Sainberbe), naming his son William executor, his daughters Eleanor and Joane and his wife Joane; and Joan’s will of 29 March 1597, proved 10 May 1597 (Somerset Record Society, Wills 62), naming her son William, her daughters Elianor and Joan, and “Joane, daughter of my son William”. That granddaughter does not appear in the will of 1634.

His wife

The will names no wife. A family genealogy by Frost (1920) concluded that “as no wife is mentioned she probably predeceased”.

The voyage

Walter Deane’s sailing from Weymouth in April 1637 is in a port book (E 190/876/11), abstracted in Peter Wilson Coldham’s The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607–1660, p. 183: “Walter Deane and six servants”.