CAPTAIN JOHN DEANE was born in Nottingham in 1679 and he died in his eighty-second year at Wilford in the year 1761. His long life was crammed full of adventure and excitement. As a young man he fell into bad company, and took to poaching and deer-stealing, a very serious matter in those days, and to escape the consequences of his acts he went to sea. The shipman’s trade seemed to suit him, and he prospered so much that he rose to the rank of captain. In that capacity he took part in the capture of Gibraltar in 1704.
When he was about 30 years of age he, with the assistance of his father and brother, purchased a small galley which he called " The Nottingham," but it was wrecked. He and the crew were reduced to dreadful extremes before they were rescued from a desert island and brought back to England, together with some pirate treasure he had acquired.
About 1740 he settled in Wilford where he resided for a score or so years, and one would have thought that amidst such tranquil surroundings his adventures would have ended. But it was not so, for one day he was violently assaulted and robbed of the pirate treasure, for which crime his assailant was hanged. Some locals now know the location as hangman's corner. However the stolen treasure was never recovered.
N 52° 56.169 W 001° 09.239
Captain John Deane is buried in Wilford Churchyard, and his tomb should be more of a place of pilgrimage than it is for those who still feel the call for adventure singing in their ears. Is it calling you, to uncover the location of the stolen pirate treasure?
Logging Etiquette: Geocache hiders sometimes go through a great deal of planning to place their caches. As a result, they'd like to hear your feedback on whether you liked or disliked any aspect of the hide, or if you feel that some cache maintenance is required. Single word, acronym, or emoticon logs may be easier when you have a lot of caches to log, but it doesn't tell the hider or other finders anything about your adventure (or lack thereof) in finding the cache. Please keep this in mind when entering your log.
