Sheila Harris stepped in at the last minute as unfortunately Megan Maltby was not able to give her advertised talk (Commonwealth War Graves- the Work Continues)
Francis Dehane had been the mayor that Sheila had chosen to study for the annual display of Past Mayors of Deal as part of the Heritage weekend activities in the Town Hall
Francis had been born in 1714 in Deal, son of Louis Dehane and his wife Ann Stone. Sheila had been helped by an Ancestry Family tree, which, although it contained some mistakes, had pointed in the right direction.
Louis Dehane had been born in Calais in 1670 the son of Jacob Dehane and his wife Ann Delamarre. Louis was baptised at the protestant church in Guines during a fairly tumultuous time when the Protestants were being persecuted by the Catholics. A book about the Minet family of Calais and later Dover gave great insight into the struggles at that time.
The Church at Guines had been destroyed in 1686 but luckily the Registers had survived and have been published by the Huguenot Society and are now available on Family Search
Some of the stories of the persecution they suffered were harrowing. At one time one of the Minet family was in prison with his mother in the adjacent cell, eventually, due to overcrowding they were moved in together and were helped to obtain food by James Buck of Dover who was imprisoned for having sold tobacco. Both the Minet family and the Dehane family were eventually able to be smuggled across to England
Jacob, father of Louis had died in 1682 but Anne and the children managed to reach Canterbury in about 1686, certainly, they had arrived before 1688 because the sister of Louis was married then in Canterbury. Louis married in 1693 and Sheila showed the “Promesse de marriage” the French equivalent of our Banns, as well as the actual marriage.
Returning to Francis Sheila gave details of his marriages and his children. His first marriage had ended with the death of his wife Mary leaving only 1 living child. Mary was believed by many people on Ancestry to be Mary Wraight but details of deeds in Deal Museum confirmed that she was in fact Mary Underdown. The Wraight name assumption came from 2 grandchildren of Francis having Wraight as a middle name. It turned out that the Dehanes had been left substantial bequests by Jane Wraight who was a niece of Francis’ mother.
There were no reports in the Newspapers relating to Francis as a Councillor but he did appear as a Surgeon in some reports. He also appeared as letting a house in Walmer in 1749. The description of the property gave tantalising clues as to its whereabouts but this could not be fully established.
Francis died in September 1778 leaving only 3 surviving children. Ann died in 1780Louis continued to live in Deal and surrounding areas well into the late 1800s
Following some discussion Sheila then shared pictures of some postcards dating from about the 1940s. These generated discussion as to the shops and buildings shown in these.