Thirteenth Generation

7468. Deacon John Doane Sr. was born about 1590 in Manchester, Lancashire, England.^559,611 He lived Plymouth in Plymouth, Massachusetts (Plymouth) in 1630.^437,611 He died on 21 February 1685 at the age of 95 in Eastham, Massachusetts (Barnstable).^559,611 Deacon John Doane Sr. was born about 1590/91 in England. He immigrated between 1628 and 1633 to Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. He resided in 1630 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. He served as an Assistant to the Governor of the Colony in 1632/33. He took custody of Joseph Harding, who may have been his nephew in 1633.

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches

—Widow Harding was on the 25 March 1633 tax list for the minimum amount, nine shillings. Martha Harding died before 28 October 1633 and John Doane presented her inventory and was administrator on behalf of her son (PCR 1:18). Her inventory was valued at a little over £20, and among her debts were £20 to three of her husband's brothers in England. It was noted that she died without a will, leaving one son to the custody of Mr. John Doane (MD 1:82-83), and Dawes-Gates 2:302 gives good reason to think that she may have been Doane's sister. Her son, Joseph Harding, later married Bethiah Cooke (PCR 8:27), daughter of Josiah Cooke, q.v. There were other Hardings in the area, such as the John Harding on the 1643 ATBA for Duxbury; the Phebe Harding who married John Browne on 26 March 1634 (PCR 1:26); and the Winifred Harding who married Thomas Whitton on 22 November 1639 (PCR 1:134); but no relationship is known with Martha Harding. [p.298]

He bought a dwelling house and homestead from John Coombe in 1633/34 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1633-34, John Coombe, who married Sarah Priest, the younger, and was therefore the brother-in-law of Phinehas Pratt, sold unto John Doane "a dwelling house and homestead with the enclosure and outbuildings thereto belonging, next adjoining to the late dwelling house of Godbert Godbertson, on the west side thereof and the Herring river on the east in Plymouth, for nine pounds and ten shillings."

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part One: Chronological Histories
Chapter 2: Bringing Over Their Friends (1627-1633)
We know that there were taxes, also called rates, in Plymouth Colony as early as 1623, for one of the matters agreed when newcomers arrived that year was that every male over sixteen years of age would pay a bushel of Indian wheat, or the equivalent, toward the maintenance of government and public officers. We do not hear much more about taxes until colony records show that on 2 January 1632/33 Governor Bradford, Captain Standish, John Alden, John Howland, John Doane, Stephen Hopkins, William Gilson, Samuel Fuller, Sr., John Jenny, Cuthbert Cuthbertson, and Jonathan Brewster were ordered by the court to assess taxes on the colonists, [p.49] payable in grain or the equivalent. The amount of the taxes to be paid ranged from nine shillings to £3/11, and, unlike the 1623 tax which seemed limited to males over sixteen, several widows were included. Not all residents or even all landowners (e.g., Henry Sampson,Richard More) were rated, so that it is difficult to determine what the criteria were to include a given individual as a taxpayer. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was based on the value of one's crop yield plus net increase in livestock.

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part One: Chronological Histories
Chapter 2: Bringing Over Their Friends (1627-1633)
On 2 January 1633/34 rates were again assessed by the new governor, Thomas Prence, and William Bradford, Captain Standish, John Howland, Stephen Hopkins, John Doane, William Gilson, William Collier, John Jenny, Robert Hicks, Jonathan Brewster, Kenelm Winslow, and Stephen Deane. Only eighty individuals were rated this time, and we can note that some of the names on the 1632/33 list, but missing from the 1633/34 list, were among those who had died in the epidemic, though in a few cases their widows took their places.

He sold the indenture of Walter Harris to Henry Howland on 8 Apr 1633. (352)

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches
Baker, William
This is the Mr. John Atwood who was an Assistant in 1638, not the John Wood, alias
Atwood, who also lived in Plymouth. He apparently had planned before 8 April 1633 to come to Plymouth, for on that date John Doane sold the indenture of Walter Harris (who had bound himself to serve Mr. Atwood of London under the command of Mr. John Doane of New Plymouth) to Henry Howland (PCR 1:12). On [p.237] He took inventory of Godbert Godbertson's estate (with Stephen Hopkins) on 28 Oct 1633 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

October 28, 1633, "At a General Court Phinehas Pratt was referred to a further hearing about the goods of Godbert Godbertson and Sarah his wife." John Done ( Doane) and Stephen Hopkins took an inventory of the property.

He was chosen to the office of Deacon in the Church, and opted to relinquish his office as Assistant on 2 Jan 1634.

Nathaniel Morton wrote that John Cooke, Mr. John Doane, and Mr. William Paddy were deacons under the Reverend John Reyner, and John Dunham became a deacon later. Reyner became minister in 1636, and John Doane was a deacon at least as early as 2 January 1633/34, when he resigned his office as Assistant because of his deaconship. (source: Plymouth Colony: History and People)

"The court could also appoint special commissions for various tasks, such as in October 1636 when the General Court appointed William Brewster, Ralph Smith, John Doane, John Jenney, Jonathan Brewster, Christopher Wadsworth, James Cudworth, and Anthony Annable as a special committee to join with the governor and Assistants in reviewing all laws to make recommendations for changes at the next court meeting." (Plymouth Colony: History and People)

He sued Mrs. Eleanor Billington for slander; she was fined £5 & sent to sit in the stocks & be whipped in 1636.

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches
Billington, Francis
The wife of John Billington, Eleanor was with him in 1620 on the Mayflower. Her maiden name is not known, though some have speculated that it might have been Newton, since her son Francis inherited land in Lincolnshire, England, with a co-heir named Newton. However, Billington researcher Harriett Hodge thinks that the surname could be Longland. On 1636 Eleanor was fined £5 and sentenced to sit in the stocks and be whipped for slandering John Doane (PCR 1:42). She was married between 28 August 1638 and 21 September 1638 to (2) Gregory Armstrong (PCR 12:33. 37), but there is no record of her having any children by him.

He shared an allottment of hay ground with the widow Eleanor Billington in 1636.(352) He served as as part of a group assigned to set rates on goods to be sold and wages to be paid laborers. on 5 Jan 1636.(352)

"As early as 5 January 1635/36, John Doane, John Winslow, Manasseh Kempton, Kenelm Winslow, John Jenney, John Browne, and John Barnes were chosen to assist the governor and council to set rates on goods to be sold and wages to be paid laborers. " (Plymouth Colony: History and People")

He received £15 in return for agreeing to care for Mary Brown, daughter of the late Peter, for 9 years on 11 Nov 1636. (352)

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches
He married (1) Martha Ford, q.v., in 1626 and (2) Mary ______ca. 1630 (TAG 42:41). He had two surviving children by each wife. He died intestate, and his widow Mary was made
administratrix of his estate on 11 November 1633, at which time she was ordered by the court to pay £15 to Mr. John Doane for benefit of Peter's daughter Mary, and £15 to Mr. William Gilson for benefit of Peter's daughter Priscilla, the court having placed Mary with Doane for nine years and Priscilla with Gilson for twelve years; He sold his half-interest in a house to the co-owner, John Atwood, for £60 on 30 Dec 1636.(352)

"30 December 1636 John Atwood, late of London, gentleman, bought John Doane's half interest in a house and land near Plain Dealing that they had jointly owned for £60 (PCR 1:47)." (Plymouth Colony: History and People")

He was granted a license to sell wine in 1639. (352) He served as Assistant to the Governor of the Colony in 1639. (4087)(4088) He served as Deputy for Plymouth between 1639 and 1642. (352)(4089) (4090) He served as an elected member of the committee to be added to the governor and council to make laws on 19 May 1639. (352)

On 16 May 1639 the townsmen of Plymouth elected four "comittes" to be added to the
governor and council to make laws: John Doane, Manasseh Kempton, John Dunham, and John Cooke, Jr. (source: Plymouth Colony: History and People)

He was presented for selling wine contrary to the court's order, but the charges were dropped in 1640. He served as grand juryman in 1640 in Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts. He served in the military in 1643 in the Plymouth Military Company. He was one of the earliest settlers in 1644 in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts. He was one of the six founders of Eastham, where "he took possession of about 200 acres of land; and his house stood near the water."

The decade of the 1640s saw the Pilgrims in Plymouth considering their future, and whether or not they wanted that future to take place in Plymouth. Some thought of relocating their settlement to the outer lands of Cape Cod. In 1643 a committee was formed to investigate that very possibility. Among those in the party who journeyed to the outer Cape was Thomas Prence who came across to the New World on board the vessel Fortune in 1621. Upon their return to Plymouth the committee decided to pack up their belongings and take their chances in the land known as Nauset, now known as Eastham. Settlement commenced in 1644. The boundaries were vague at best, at first consisting of everything east of Old Yarmouth and including the towns of Brewster, Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Truro and, of course, Eastham. The township was known as Nauset until 1651 when it was renamed Eastham. This land was reserved for the Old Comers, those Pilgrims who came across on the first three ships - the Mayflower, Fortune and Anne. Joining Prence were John Doane, Nicholas Snow and Josias Cook as well as Higgins, Smalley and Bangs. Eastham is the only Cape Cod town founded entirely by people from Plymouth Colony. It's interesting that Pilgrims should return to Eastham as it was the site of their first contact with Native Indians, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620 just before they sailed the Mayflower across the Bay to settle at Plymouth. Founding father Thomas Prence would later become Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1655 until his death in 1673. (source: Historic Cape Cod)

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part One: Chronological Histories
Chapter 4: A Loss of Leaders (1643-1657)
Rehoboth
Perhaps a more serious attempt to move Plymouth came about in 1644, when because of the "straightnes and barrennes of [Plymouth] and their finding of better accomodations elsewhere, more suitable to their ends and minds; and sundrie others still upon every occasion desiring their dismissions, the church begane seriously to thinke whether it were not better joyntly to remove to some other place." After many meetings, the Plymouth people gave their attention to moving to Nauset on Cape Cod, one of the three areas reserved to the Purchasers, who were in agreement for the move. There then occurred a change of heart, for "now they begane to see their errour, that they had given away already the best and most commodious places to others, and now wanted them selves." Nauset was too small and too remote, so Plymouth remained as it was. Still, this was the occasion for the establishment of yet another new town, and an undated list probably made in the 1640s shows that the freemen there were Thomas Prence, John Doane, Edward Bangs, Nicholas Snow, John Jenkins, Josiah Cooke, Samuel Hicks, John Smalley, Joseph Rogers, and Richard Higginson. On 3 March 1644/45 the General Court granted to the Plymouth Church "or those that goe to dwell at Nosett," all the land between sea and sea "from the Purchasors bounds at Naumskeckett to the Hering Brooke at Billingsgate." The court on 2 June 1646 ordered that "Nawsett" [p.77] be made a township, and Samuel Hicks was appointed as constable. On 7 June 1651 the court ordered the name of the town of Nauset to be changed to Eastham.

He was one of the men appointed to buy land at Nauset (Eastham) from the Indians about 1644. He served as Deacon of the First Church, Selectman, Deputy for Eastham to the Colony Court after 1644.(561) He was granted a license to sell wine on 7 Jan 1645 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. He served as deputy to the general court in 1649. He was appointed to solemnize marriages on 1 Jun 1663 in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts. He signed a will on 16 May 1678.(352) He died on 21 Feb 1686 in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts. He had an estate inventoried on 21 May 1686. It was sworn to by Abigail Doane, probably his daughter.

JOHN, Plymouth 1630, an Assist. 1633, but not after, as he declin. the civ. office on being chos. deac.; rem. 1644 to Eastham, there was deac. and d. 21 Feb. 1686. His age was great, perhaps 95. One report of his d. makes it in 1707, and age 110, but it is not support. by any authority; and prob. the f. and s. possib. gr.s. of the same name were confus. by the [p.56] reporter of the childish exagger. His w. Abigail had, beside Daniel, bef. ment. John; Ephraim; Lydia, wh. m. 1645, Samuel Hicks; Abigail, b. 13 Jan. 1632, at the age of 60, bec. sec. w. of Samuel Lothrop, outliv. him many yrs. and d. 23 Jan. 1735. Above 3 yrs. bef. a century sermon (I presume on her entry upon the hundredth yr.), had been preach. in her room by Rev. Joseph Lord. See Boston Weekly Journal of
1735. (Savage 2:55)

Deacon John Doane of Eastham came from England to Plymouth. Nothing is yet known of his history in England, but the same is true of the greater number of the Pilgrims and Puritans who came to New England before the middle of the seventeenth century. A record was kept in England of those emigrants who upon leaving took the oath of loyalty to the English Crown and promised conformity to the Established Church. Most of the Puritan emigrants to the new world desired to avoid this enforced oath of allegiance, and to settle in the land of their adoption free to follow their own inclinations. Accordingly, they avoided the legal formalities of departure, and sailed away with more or less secrecy. They were not, therefore, enrolled in the official records of the government. Deacon Doane was one of the principal men in the affairs of Plymouth Colony, being one of the few who bore the title of "Mr." Englishmen of the seventeenth century were careful to give no title where it was not due. In the Plymouth Colony, the Governor, Deputy Governor, the magistrates and their assistants, the clergy, schoolmasters, officers in the militia, men of great wealth, or those connected with the gentry or nobility were the only men called "Mr.," and their wives and daughters bore the title of "Mistress." According to Plymouth Records, Deacon Doane was a member of the Governor's Counsell, and in many other and various ways, served the people. On Jan. 2, 1633-4, at the Court, Mr. John Doane being formally chosen to the office of a Deacon in the Church, at the request of the Church and himself, was freed from the office of an Assistant in the Common Weale." He preferred to be a Deacon in the Church, rather than an Assistant to the Governor in the affairs of the Colony. The great question of that day was "separation" and "independence," hence we can appreciate his course of thought in deciding.
Nevertheless, Mr. Doane was thereafter frequently summoned to act for the welfare of the community. In 1636, he and others "were joined to the Governor and Council for the preparation of a regular system of laws." (Goodwin's Pingrim Republic, p. 401.) This was the first revision of the laws of the Colony. Frequent grants of land from the Court made to Mr. Doane appear to be because of his many services in behalf of the Colony. In 1645, with six others, he removed to Eastham. where "he took possession of about 200 acres of land ,and his house stood near the water." At various times during his residence at Eastham, he had land granted him by the Court as well as by the town. Here he is found a useful and influential man. He was appointed to solemnize marriages and administer oaths. He was Deacon of the First Church, Selectman, Deputy for Eastham to the Colony Court. He died Feb. 21, 1685, aged about ninety-five years. (source: Ancestors of Eugene Hunter Payne)

Doane Homestead - A huge boulder and plaque remains at this site where a homestead was constructed by some of the first English inhabitants of Eastham. In the 1600's the town was then known by its Indian name -- Nauset. The plot is located off of Doane Road near the Salt Pond Visitors Center. (source: Virtual Cape Cod)

GENEALOGICAL REGISTER of PLYMOUTH FAMILIES page 87
DOANE, ISAIAH, m. Hannah Bartlett, 1775. JOHN, Plymouth, 1630, Eastham, 1644, had by
wife Abigail, Daniel, m. Hepsibah Cole; John, m. Hannah, d. of Edward Bangs; Ephraim, m.
Mercy Knowles; Lydia, m., 1645, Samuel Hicks; Abigail, 1632, m. Samuel Lothrop.

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Two: Topical Narratives
Chapter 8: Political Structure and Government
Thus, the general policy of admission to freeman rank, at least in the beginning, was on the whole quite liberal, and most of the male Old Comers achieved freeman status. The Leiden group and the non-Leiden group seemed roughly evenly matched. Bradford dominated the government, but under him the majority of the leadership seemed to consist of non-Leiden men, as can be seen in 1633 (the first year for which we have records showing all seven Assistants), when Edward Winslow was governor, and the Assistants were William Bradford, Myles Standish, John Howland, John Alden, John Doane, Stephen Hopkins, and William Gilson. Of these, only Winslow and Bradford had definitely been of the Leiden group (Standish had spent time in Leiden, but he never became a member of the Separatist Church). John Doane, who became a deacon in the Plymouth Church, was probably a Separationist, for church membership and Separationism went hand in hand.

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches
Biographical Sketches Cooke, Josiah
"...his daughter Bethia had married Joseph Harding, ward and presumed nephew of John Doane..."

Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 Part Three: Biographical Sketches
Biographical Sketches Doane, John
John Doane was born ca. 1590 (he called himself aged about eighty-eight in his will, dated 16 May 1678, given below). He arrived at Plymouth probably between 1628 and 1632. There is no record of him being at Leiden, but he served as a deacon in the Plymouth Church. He was an Assistant in 1632/33, but he was "freed from the office" on 2 January 1633/34 so that he could devote his full time to his church functions. He still served on various government committees, including the one that revised the laws in 1636, and he later became a deputy for Plymouth. In 1636 he shared an allotment of hay ground with the widow Ellen [p.283] Billington, and this might have led to his suing her the same year for £100 for slander; she was sentenced to pay him £5 and to sit in the stocks and be whipped (PCR 1:40-42). He was usually given the honorific title "Mr.," and in one document he referred to himself as "Gent., Tayler" (Dawes-Gates, 2:305). He had business connections with Mr. John Atwood, though the exact relationship is unclear. He acted as Atwood's agent in obtaining the indenture of Walter Harris as a servant in 1633, and in 1636 Atwood bought Doane's share of a house and land at Plain Dealing which they had held in partnership (PCR 1:12, 47). Doane was granted a license to sell wine in 1639, and in 1640 he was presented for selling wine contrary to the court's order, though this apparently was a misunderstanding, and the charges were dropped (PCR 1:127, 156). He was one of the men appointed to buy land at Nauset from the Indians, and he became one of the first settlers there (PCR 2:144, 154, 168).

His earliest known wife was called Ann in a 1648 deed, but in a later deed (of 1659) his wife was Lydia (Dawes-Gates 2:304; MD 13:232). His inventory in 1686 was sworn to by an Abigail Doane, whom some have taken as a third wife, though Dawes-Gates 2:305 has good arguments to show that Abigail was more likely his daughter. Torrey suggests that wife Ann might have been a Perkins. In his will dated 18 May 1678, inventory taken 21 May 1686 and sworn to by Abigail Doane 29 May 1686, he named his "loving wife," daughter Abigail, sons John, Daniel, and Ephraim, and granddaughter Margaret Hicks, and he left the remainder of his estate to "all his sons and daughters" (MD 3:177). He described himself in the will as "aged eighty and eight or there about," and in the inventory he was said to have died 21 February 1685/86, "aged about a hundred years"—thus in eight years he had aged twelve years, which is a typical overstatement of age which occurred in these times as someone began approaching the century mark. His daughter Lydia married Samuel Hicks; Abigail married Samuel Lothrop (in 1690—she was unmarried in 1686 when Doane's will was sworn to); son John married (1) Hannah Bangs and (2) Rebecca Pettee; Daniel married (1) unknown and (2) Hepsibah (Cole) Crispe; and Ephraim married (1) Mercy Knowles and (2) Mary (Smalley) Snow (Dawes-Gates 2:305, which carries the line of Daniel2 Doane forward two more generations). Dawes-Gates 2:302 gives good reason for believing that John Doane's ward, Joseph Harding, was his nephew, and Joseph's mother, the widow Martha Harding, was Doane's sister. In addition to the account in Dawes-Gates 2:299-313, another good account of what is known of his life and family is given in Moore Families, p. 233-43.

DOANE, JOHN, 1591-1686. Governor's Assistant, 1632-'33-'39. Member of Plymouth Military Co., 1643. Deputy, Plymouth, 1639-1642; Eastham, 1649, et seq. (Society of Colonial Wars, 618)

DOANE, John (1691-1686), from Eng. to Plymouth, Mass., 1630; removed to Eastham, 1644', Gov.'s Asst., 1632, 33, 39; mem. Plymouth mil. company, 1643; dep. Gen. Ct., 1639-42 and 1649, et seq. (Virkus p 3474)

He was married to Ann Perkins * about 1625 in England.(322) Children were: John Doane Jr. * (Doanne), Abigail Doane, Lydia Doane, Daniel Doane, Ephraim Doane.

He was married to Lydia ?? * (often aka Abigail, see gen note) in 1657/58 in Eastham (then Nauset, New Plymouth Colony), Barnstable, Massachusetts.( Ann Perkins and Deacon John Doane Sr. were married in 1625 in England.⁴³⁷

7469. Ann Perkins⁴³⁷ was born about 1600 in England.⁴³⁷ She died between 1648 and 1657 at the age of 48 in Eastham, Massachusetts (Barnstable).⁴³⁷

Children were: