DEANE, John (c.1632-94), of Oxenwood, Tidcombe, Wilts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679
1690 - 31 Dec. 1694

Family and Education

b. c.1632, 1st surv. s. of James Deane of Deanland, Basing, Hants by 2nd w. Frances, da. of Thomas Baynard of Lackham, Wilts. educ. M. Temple 1650. m. (1) Margaret, da. of Thomas Garrard of Lambourn, Berks., 1s.; (2) bef. 1665, Magdalene, da. of John Stroughill of Barkham, Berks., at least 1s. 3da. suc. fa. 1652.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Hants 1661-80, Wilts. 1677-80, Berks. 1679-80, 1689, Hants and Wilts. 1689-90, loyal and indigent officers, Wilts. 1662, recusants, Berks. and Hants 1675; dep. lt. Hants ?1676-Feb. 1688, col. of militia ft. by 1679-Feb. 1688; j.p. Hants 1680-Apr. 1688, 1689-d., Wilts. 1680-June 1688, Oct. 1688-d., Berks. 1680-?d.; freeman, Portsmouth 1683.2

Lt. of ft. Sir William Killigrew’s regt. 1662.3

Biography

Deane’s grandfather obtained a grant of arms in 1598 with a list of seven generations of ancestors. Yet although the family was widespread in northeast Hampshire, they do not seem to have been of any account before. Deane’s father leased Oxenwood from the Seymours shortly before the Civil War, in which he appears to have taken no part. Deane himself was of course too young to fight, but was drawn into Penruddock’s rising ‘through the influence of his malignant neighbours rather than his own inclination’. He returned to his mother’s house after only three days, but he was condemned to death and only obtained a reprieve at great expense. He was released on bail in 1656, and on a certificate of his penitence allowed to redeem his estate (practically all of which would only come to him on his mother’s death) for £200. At the Restoration Deane and other survivors, with the widows of their less fortunate companions, offered a proviso to the indemnity bill excepting their judges, but it did not pass. He obtained a regular commission in 1662, but did not hold it long, and retired to live the life of a country gentleman of modest means, serving in ‘several chargeable places of honour in the country’, and possibly sometimes entrusted by Prince Rupert with private business.4

Oxenwood lies near the meeting-point of Wiltshire, Berkshire and Hampshire. Deane held office in all three counties, though as deputy lieutenant and militia officer he was most prominent in the last. It was as a country candidate and possibly on the Powlett interest that he was defeated by Charles West in the Andover by-election of 1678. At the next general election he stood for Great Bedwyn, only four miles from his home, and his success deprived Daniel Finch, one of the leading government spokesmen, of a seat in the first Exclusion Parliament. An inactive Member, he was appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges and to that for examining the disbandment accounts. Shaftesbury marked him ‘honest’, but, to use his own words, he voted against ‘the horrid and hellish bill of exclusion’. Though supported by the Bruce interest in the autumn, he was unsuccessful, and his petition was not reported. His loyalty was not in question, however, for he was added to the commissions of the peace both in Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is not known whether he stood in 1681, but four years later he unsuccessfully opposed the Whig candidates at Whitchurch, about midway between his Hampshire and Wiltshire properties. Claiming to have spent £10,000 in the King’s service, he petitioned for an office of profit. James II, who retained a gracious sense of his ‘constant loyalty and good services’, recommended him to the lord treasurer; but whatever was done for him, he was soon ‘turned out of all he had for refusing to take away the Penal Laws’, and even Finch magnanimously described him as a great sufferer. To the lord lieutenant of Wiltshire, Deane ‘sent a civil excuse for not coming, and said he had given his answer to the Duke of Berwick’, who noted him among the Hampshire deputy lieutenants as negative on the first and second questions.5

Deane came in to William of Orange at Hungerford, only eight miles from Oxenwood, and was returned to the Convention for Ludgershall. He voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, but did not hesitate to petition the new Government for employment. He was again an inactive Member; of his four committees, the most important was for the bill to restore corporations. He was re-elected in 1690, but died of smallpox at Westminster at the end of 1694. He was buried at Tidcombe on 4 Jan. 1695. His younger son went out to the West Indies as a preacher, while his heir James obtained a private Act in 1701 for the sale of Oxenwood, said to be worth not above £150 p.a., and Deanland followed not long after.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 199; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv), 16; Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvi), 214, 291; Al. Ox. 389; M. B. Deane, Bk. of Dene, 20; Coll. Top. et. Gen. viii. 188-9.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 60; R. East, Portsmouth Recs. 366.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 516.
  • 4. Grantees of Arms (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 72; Wilts. RO, 562/1; PCC 289 Brent; Thurloe, iii. 372; CSP Dom. 1656-7, pp. 24-25; 1658-9, pp. 251-2; 1673-5, p. 509; HMC 7th Rep. 98, 123-4; HMC Laing, i. 448-9.
  • 5. HMC Finch, ii. 54-55, 289; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 178; 1689-90, p. 181.
  • 6. CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 181; Wood’s Life and Times (Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxvi), 476; PCC adm. act bk. 1695, f. 13; Wilts. Arch. Mag. vi. 303; Magd. Coll. Reg. vi. 119; St. 13 Wm. III c.40; Deane, 21.