Sir James Deane, kt.

Sir James Deane, knighted at Whitehall 8 July 1604, was descended from the family of Deane or Dene of Denelands. Sir James amassed a large fortune as a merchant adventurer to India, China, and the Spice Islands. He was fined for refusing to act as Alderman. He gave the rectory of Deane in Hampshire to his brother-in-law Holdip and his successors. Lord of the Manor of Basingstoke, to which town he was a liberal benefactor, he built almshouses for eight poor aged men or women, and his bequests, with some others, enabled the Aldermen and Wardens in 1609 to declare the Fraternity or Guild of the Holy Ghost, standing in the ancient cemetery, a Free School, the master being still called the Chaplain of the Chapel of the Holy Ghost. He remembered the poor in every parish in which he had lived or owned property. He was married three times, first to Susan the daughter of Christopher Bumsted, secondly to Elizabeth daughter of Hugh Offley, Alderman of London, his third wife being Elizabeth the daughter of Richard Thornhill of Bromley in Kent, and relict of Christopher Webbe, Esq., eldest son of Sir William Webbe, Knt., Lord Mayor of London in 1591 (by whom she had a son Sir William Webbe, Knt., who married a daughter of Sir Rowland Litton, Knt.). This lady, after the death of Sir James Deane, married as her third husband John Brewster, Esq., of London, secondary of the Fine Office, the 29th of Sept. 1609, and died the 23rd of Oct. 1609, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's the 2nd of Nov following. Sir James Deane died 15 May 1608 aged 62.

Sources:

• middlesex-heraldry.org.uk
• Boyd, Percival. Boyd’s Inhabitants of London & Boyd’s Family Units. WEBB, Christopher, 1580, Sheet No. 223