In the patriarchal European society continued into the colonies of the Americas the husband and father holds all property and right. This helps to explain the near instantaneous deterioration of John Deake's family in the beginning of the 1760's. Though other factors were involved in the collapse, this fact proves a mighty hindrance to all that Hannah Deake may have done to preserve her family as a whole.
At first glance, the debts that John Deake inflicted upon himself and his family appear to fester from the heavy expenses of raising a family of nine children. But since he was a doctor, one might also assume that Deake would have had more than enough money to make ends meet. Herein lies the mystery in this family's defeat. Perhaps he wasn't a very successful doctor in Hopkinton, a city that quite likely supported a large enough community to require many doctors, thus providing enough competition to raise the quality requirement of its doctors. Or maybe during this period of time an epidemic swept through the town, rendering several of his children sick. And despite an increase in demand for doctors in the community, regardless of their ability, Deake may have placed the health of his children before his opportunity to better support them financially. This being his thought, he may have made many of his loans at this time to allow him to nurse his children, intending to pay it off when they got better. Yet, with this hypothetical decision and very real death, he ruined the life of his children by leaving them no legacy.
As a further blow to the family, beyond the death of the father, to help pay off the debts and affairs, the children were bound out as servants. With the sudden death of the provider and protector, the members of the Deake family found themselves separated and isolated from those they loved. Hannah Deake's father was actually quite a wealthy man himself, and should have had more than the means to take care of his extended progeny.
