William DEANE

The name of Den, or Dene, which is the ancient way of spelling what is now written Deane, makes its appearance in England soon after the introduction of surnames. It was apparently derived from the Saxon word den, or dene, a valley. From different modes of spelling the word dene or den have arisen two surnames, which at the present time are entirely distinct, viz., Deane and Denne. In the reign of Elizabeth, the letter "a" was introduced into the name so that Dene became Deane. There are in England four distinct families of Deanes, from which all the others are offshoots. the first person of the name that we have any record of was Robert de Den or de Dene, who was "butler or sewer" to Edward the Confessor. He held estates in Normandy, as well as in england, and my have been one of the Norman favorites which this monarch called around him. from him he may have received estates in England of sufficiently greater importance than his Norman heritage, to induce him to assume their appellation. confirmatory of this conjecture it may be remarked that this family was not deprived of their estates at the Conquest. Another person of the name, early met with, is Sir William of Dene, who was, at the time of the Conquest, owner of Throwly in Kent, the seat of an ancient "priory of Priors Aliens", suppressed in 1415. There are many distinguished knights by the name of Dene, who though it is impossible t identify them with any particular families, are fixed to counties by the valuable Roll of Knights, in the eighth year of the reign of Edward II.

Comments