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Question

After hearing from a correspondent I have done some work on Sir Anthony Dean, ship builder. I am now convinced that ODNB is wrong about his origins and HOP is right. Trouble is ODNB has been copied over and over, with good reason as it is a most reputable source. There is still more to be done on this profile, adding more children, first wife and mother when the primary sources are found and there's more to be added to the bio. The question is "Have I made the case?" at least for now as I would like a little rest from it. I've been talking to myself about this for several days now so am no longer objective.

Comments

Someone has suggested that his profile should be PPP particularly as there is a lot of misinformation about his ancestry.

Given he was issued with a coat of arms, I could PPP him on behalf of the EuroAristo project but under new rules that would entail adding EuroAristo as a co-manager on the profile?

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ODNB is awful. I wouldn't be surprised if half the entries are complete balderdash. The new DNB is a lot better, but, hey, it's an encyclopedia.

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You might check WAALT if you haven't already. I think a bunch of these hits are either him or his father. http://www.uh.edu/waalt/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=%22anthony+deane%22&fulltext=1

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ODNB is the new one.

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Sorry for seemingly-dense question: what do these mean?
ODNB?
HOP?
WAALT?

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a subscription site but free with many UK library cards. http://www.oxforddnb.com/

History of Parliament online http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/members

Best to read this one, its from the US (and not one I am familiar with)

http://www.uh.edu/waalt/index.php/Main_Page

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Thank you, Helen.

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Hmm... seems odd that someone would be apprenticed to one of the leading shipwrights of the day with no apparent connection to the trade, the family, or the locality.

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True, but we don't really know much at all about the father, apart from the fact that he is listed in Sir Anthony Deane's granting of a coat of arms, as Anthony, Gent of London, nor the grandfather.

There was ship building in Gloucestershire so the family could have been involved in that trade?

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I don't think there was any shipbuilding in Gloucestershire at the time and, even if there were, it would have been centred on the Forest of Dean and Gloucester itself, not Stow-on-Wold which is in the opposite direction and was in any case a wool town.

However I do have some encouragement for proponents of this theory. The life of the regicide Admiral Richard Deane (1610-1653) seems more reliably documented. You have to wade through a lot of chaff but according to this: https://archive.org/stream/lifeofricharddea00dean/lifeofricharddea00dean_djvu.txt he was baptised in Guiting Power in Gloucestershire which is a small village near Stow-on-the-Wold. His father was Edward Deane who should have a brother Anthony, grandfather of Sir Anthony.

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Thanks Matthew, for the link to that work, the genealogical table on pp. 56-57 does have the grandfather Anthony as the brother of Edward.

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Oh I stopped reading before coming to that page! Well if the father of Sir Anthony was indeed Richard's first cousin then this gives extremely strong support to the theory that the Anthony born in Stow in 1633 is indeed the later Sir Anthony. Richard could easily have been the connection which got Anthony apprenticed to Woolwich too. It all seems to fit pretty well now.

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My own research experience is that something copied copiously and continually does not necessarily make correct and/or reliable unless it was originally correct. Access to original sources are important whenever possible. Someone transcribing an original source or citing it should be alright although wherever possible do check.

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When I return to Maui from my mainland trip in June, I will be hosting a 4th cousin from Australia, also a descendant of Sir Anthony Deane. I will bring with me some books by and about Sir Anthony and see what information we can get from them. If I find anything noteworthy, I'll share it. Thanks very much to everyone who has worked on Sir Anthony's profile.

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I happen to have a copy of a rendering of the blazon (from the College of Arms, London) of Sir Anthony's armorial bearings hanging above the fire place in our second home. It was commissioned by my great uncle Raymond Deane Dawson, Sr. From what I understand about the grant of arms, the Deanes already had armorial bearings and Sir Anthony was granted the right to use a picture of the stern of the Royal George, a first rate ship, as his crest. He was knighted for the design of this ship, among other achievements as a naval architect.

Answer 1

Anthony's profile looks good! Good work. I don't know whose right or wrong about his ancestry without delving into it, but, I just worked on a profile whose ancestry has been written about in the NEHGR (The Register) four times in the last 20 years. Each article was written by an eminent genealogist and each one corrected the conclusions of the previous. The last article was published in 2009 and the conclusions about parents, wives,siblings and children were vastly different than the earliest articles. I guess what I am trying to say is that accepted genealogies can be wrong, no matter how established the source or the sourcer.

Answer 2

Thank you, that's some great detective work and I definitely think you have made your case.

I had a look for the sources mentioned in the HOP article, and found The East Anglian, which discusses about 4 or 5 different men named Anthony Deane, all active about the same time, though it doesn't always cite sources, and gets somethings wrong (Sir Anthony Deane was knighted about 1660)  Anyway it starts here https://archive.org/stream/eastanglianorno06whitgoog#page/n160/mode/2up

Answer 3

Big Book of Deanes

https://archive.org/stream/bookofdenedeanea00dean#page/46/

 

Comments

Not necessarily reliable.  The Dynes Hall pages have a number of mistakes.