Deane, Joseph (1624–99), army officer and revenue farmer, was born at Pinnock in Gloucestershire, youngest of the four sons of Edward Deane, a landed gentleman, and his second wife, Anne Deane (née Wase), a relative of Oliver Cromwell (qv); the couple also had three daughters. The eldest son, Richard (1610–53), fought in the English civil war on the parliamentary side, was one of the regicides, and became a naval commander under the protectorate, dying in action. A cousin, Sir Anthony Deane, was a navy commissioner under Charles II and a friend of Samuel Pepys.
Joseph Deane was admitted to Winchester College in 1635, and was later a cornet in Rainsborough's regiment of horse. He probably came to Ireland in 1650 with the regiment of horse commanded by Henry Cromwell (qv). He appears in January 1654, when, with Major Peter Wallis (commander of the regiment in Cromwell's absence) and other officers, he was instructed to assign lands in Co. Cork to disbanded soldiers; and in May of the same year (with the rank of captain), when his proposals for dealing with the native Irish around Cork were adopted officially. He early displayed an enterprising spirit. With Wallis and Colonel Robert Phaire (qv) he undertook the transportation of surrendering Irish soldiers to Spain, a project favoured by the government but one with which it preferred not to be identified publicly. The enterprise ended unhappily when their Spanish partners defaulted on payment and the promoters had to petition the government for relief.
On Henry Cromwell's departure from Ireland in 1659 Wallis was made colonel of the regiment, while Deane in turn was promoted major, and he played an active role in maintaining security during the volatile final months of the commonwealth regime. At the restoration he rapidly gained royal favour as well as the patronage of James Butler (qv), 1st duke of Ormond. In 1661 he was returned to parliament for Inistioge, and in 1666 and 1670 received land grants amounting to over 9,000 statute acres in counties Dublin, Meath, Kilkenny, and Down. In 1671 he purchased the manor of Terenure from Richard Talbot (qv), future earl of Tyrconnell, for £4,000. He became an alderman of the city of Dublin and in 1677 he was high sheriff for the county.
In 1666 the government granted him, with Sir Peter Pett, the farm of the hearth tax for £30,000 per annum. By 1668 he was the dominant partner in this farm, as well as in the farms of the customs and excise and of the inland excise. However, the unwillingness of the 1661–6 Irish parliament to enact legislative amendments contemplated in the arrangement for the hearth tax, the effects of war, and other economic difficulties all contributed to shortfalls in his payments to the treasury. The government began to scrutinise the management of the farms more critically and sought new bidders in 1668; even Ormond's support did not ensure success for Deane's bids on this occasion. In 1670 he was appointed to the Irish council of trade and, as compensation for the loss of his farms, was made one of the commissioners of such revenue as was not in the hands of the new farmers. The lord lieutenant, Lord Berkeley (qv), however, attempted to pursue him for his defalcations on the surrendered farms.
In 1671, probably motivated by a desire to have these debts subsumed in a new farm, he entered as a partner, for a one-twelfth share, in the famous undertaking of Richard Jones (qv), earl of Ranelagh. He was by now deputy postmaster general and ran the packet boats between Ireland and England, which allowed him to monitor communications and – especially useful for a revenue farmer – to anticipate complaints sent to London. Unfortunately for him, this farm collapsed in 1682–3 amid controversy, and he suffered partial seizure of his estates. He made a last, unsuccessful, bid for a farm in 1683. Though haunted till the end of his life by attempts to make him accountable for old obligations, he accumulated much wealth.
He married, first, Anne (of whom no more is known than her first name), with whom he had two daughters: Anne married, in 1673, Godwin Swifte, attorney general to the duke of Ormond for the county palatine of Tipperary; and Elizabeth married, in 1677 (as her second husband) Sir Donough O'Brien of Lemanagh, Co. Clare. They also had a son, Joseph (1649–98), who, in 1673, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Parker (qv), archbishop of Dublin. Major Deane married, secondly, in 1659, Elizabeth, daughter of Maurice Cuffe of Quin, Co. Clare. There were two children from this union: a daughter, Dorothy and a son, Edward Deane (1660–1717), heir to his father's Terenure estate and a prominent whig MP (Inistioge 1692, 1703–17; Co. Dublin 1695–9). Descendants bearing the name Deane sat in the house of commons for several constituencies, notably Inistioge, between 1717 and 1783.
The younger Joseph Deane and his wife, Elizabeth, had two daughters and a son, Joseph Deane (1675–1715), who was born in Dublin. He was admitted to TCD in 1689, and to Gray's Inn in 1694. He succeeded Major Deane at his Crumlin estate in Co. Dublin, for which constituency he was MP (1703–13), becoming one of the leaders of the whig opposition in the session of 1713. A barrister, he was made chief baron of the exchequer in October 1714, when, on George I's accession, the whigs purged the judicial bench. He enjoyed his new position for less than seven months, dying in May 1715 on his return from his first circuit. He married, in 1699, Margaret Boyle, daughter of the honourable Henry Boyle, of Castle Martyr, Co. Cork, and sister of Henry Boyle (qv), speaker of the house of commons and later earl of Shannon. The marriage produced a posthumous son, who died in infancy, and five daughters, all of whom made notable marriages.