William Reed Deane, A Brief Memoir of John and Walter Deane, Two of the First Settlers of Taunton, Mass. (1849)

Compiled memoir of the Deane brothers of Chard, Somerset, and Taunton, with abstracts of Plymouth Colony and Bristol County records. Used for Walter Deane and his family:

• Walter came from Chard with his elder brother John, and was at Dorchester first; Rev. Samuel Deane put his birth “in Chard, Eng. between 1615 and 1620.”
• Deputy to the Plymouth Court in 1640; selectman of Taunton “1679 to 1686, inclusive” (citing the Plymouth Court Orders). “Mr. Deane was a tanner by trade.” He always signed “Deane”; a facsimile of his signature on the inventory of William Crewe’s estate, 14 June 1672, is printed.
• In King Philip’s War, “When the Cape Towns invited the inhabitants of Taunton to come to them with their movable property for protection during Philip’s War, Mr. Deane was one of the persons appointed to decline their invitation, and return thanks for their kindness” (the signed original is at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Hinckley Papers vol. 1 no. 3).
• His wife: “We were before aware that Walter Deane and John Strong were brothers-in-law, as the former in two different deeds, dated 1691, calls the latter his ‘brother’” (Bristol Deeds 1:152 and 3:390); “His wife in 1693, was named Eleanor. She joins with him in making a conveyance, August 20th of that year” (Bristol Deeds 7:351). “No will or settlement of his estate is on record.”
• Benjamin Deane, his son: “He died between Feb. 2, 1722-3, and April 14, 1725,” with his children by Sarah Williams: Naomi, b. 1 Nov 1681, d. 6 Jan 1681/2; Hannah, 1682; Israel, 1684/5; Mary, 1687; “Damaris, b. Sept. 4, 1689, m. Matthew White”; Sarah, 1692; Elizabeth, 1694/5; Mehitable, 1697; Benjamin, 1699; Ebenezer, 1701/2.