1186.Dea. John Doane. Born ca 1590.16 John died in Eastham, MA 21 Feb 1685[/6].16 Occupation: yeoman, innkeeper.
From Josiah Paine’s Early Settlers of Eastham:95
Mr. John Doane was the eldest of the seven first settlers [of Nauset, i.e., Eastham], and undoubtedly next in rank to Gov. Prence. They were the only persons of that band whom the records of that period honor with the prefix of Mister, which in those days was only given to men of means, magistrates and ministers. At what time he arrived at Plymouth, it does not appear. Mr. Pratt, the Eastham historian, was certain he came over in one of the three first ships, his authority he does not state. This, however, is certain: he did not come over in the mayflower, Fortune or Ann. HIs name appears as a freeman and tax payer at Plymouth in 1633, and that year is mentioned as being with Mr. Wm. Bradford, Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. John Howland, Mr. John Alden, Mr. Stephen Hopkins and Mr. Wm. Gilson, an assistant of Gov. Edward Winslow; but having been chosen deacon in the church at Plymouth, ‘at the request of the church and himself, was freed from the office of assistant in the Commonweale,’ January 2, 1633-4. In 1633, with others, he was appointed to divide meadow at Plymouth. He is also mentioned in the records as presenting the inventory of the estate of Martha Harding, Oct. 28, 1633, who in behalf of her son, was appointed administrator. In 1635, at the July court, the Colony agreed ‘to build a mill’ at Plymouth, and a committee consisting of Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. Collier, Mr. John Doane and John Winslow, was ‘appointed to collect, etc., money for the building of the same,’ and to engage the workmen. In 1636, December 24, he sold his house and land at Plain Dealing, which he held in common with John ATwood, late of London for £60. In 1637, June 7th, the court was called upon to regulate the trade in beaver, corn, beads,’ etc., which was ‘likely to go to decay.’ and ‘Mr. Doane,’ with others, was appointed to aid the governor and council in consdidering the way to regulate it. In 1637, he had land granted him near his house, also one hundred acres granted him at the Jones River, in Plymouth. This year he was appointed by the court, with others, to view and lay out hay ground between Eel river and South river, at Plymouth. With Nicholas Snow, Richard Burne, Richard Sparrow, Josiah Cooke, John Smalley, ‘honest and lawful men,’ and others, whose names we omit, he examined into the cause of the death of a lad allowed ‘to draw wine’ at Plymouth; and appointed, with three othrs, to assist the governor and council to revise the laws of the Colony, which was the first revision since the settlement of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. In 1640, ‘Mr. John Doane’ was of the Grand Inquest, and a deputy for Plymouth in 1642-43. In November, 1644, he was licensed ‘to draw wine’ at Plymouth, but in January 1644-45, the court agreed to allow james Cole, the keeper of the ordinary or tavern at Plymouth, to take the wine Mr. Doane had on hand. It is evident that Mr. Doane was closing up his business in Plymouth, in view of the removal to Nausett of himself and family. It will thus be seen by these transactions, that Mr. Doane did not go to Eastham to settle in 1643 or 1644, as many of our local historians have stated, but in 1645 (N. S.) as we have heretofore stated, ujpon authority of the Colony records.
Mr. Doane was appointed, March 3rd, 1644-5, with others, to take the account of the colonial treasurer under consideration, in order for the annual settlement. In 1649, ‘Mr. John Doane’ and his son-in-law, Samuel Hicks, were deputies from Nausett or Eastham to the Plymouth court. He was also elected in 1650, 1651, 1653 and 1659. In 1663, he was appointed by the Colony court to solemnize marriages, administer oaths to witnesses, etc., in Eastham. “Mr. Doane held other offices in town and colony. Mr. Pratt, and other historical writers, say he was fourteen years selectman, but ther are not sustained in their statement by the Colonly records. The office of selectman was created in 1663. The first notice in the Colony records of those chosed in Eastham was in 1666, next in 1668, and then in 1670. After this date they are noticed regularly for many years. Mr. Doane’s name is not among them. Possibly he held the office, but it is certain he did not hold it that period of time. In 1663, Mr. Doane was seventy-two years of age, and if their statements are correct, Mr. Doane was near eighty-four years of age when he retired from the board.
Although Mr. John Doane was not one of the purchasers or old comers, yet he was a large land owner. At various periods he had land granted him by the court. In 1657, with Josiah Cooke, Richard Higgins, Richard Sparrow and John Smalley, he had land granted him between Bridgewater and Weymouth; in 1666, a tract of one hundred acres in ‘Potnumequot Neck;’ and in 1681, sixty acres ‘out of land that was Mauamwed or Takamanuckes, if to be had there,’ This appears to have been the last grant form the Coloniah court.
Mr. Doane, it is understood, settled to the north of Town Cove, in the present town of Eastham, where the site of his house is pointed out, and stone monuments erected by him are to be seen upon land he formerly owned and occupied. Mr. Pratt, in his history of Estham, published in 1844, says Mr. Doane ‘took possession of about two hundered acres’ in the vicinity, and that his house stood ‘near the water, and the remains of the cellar’ were then visible.
Rev. Mr. Pratt says, Mr. Doane ‘was forty-nine years old when he came here, and lived sixty years afterwards, being one hundren and ten years old when he died, in 1707.’ Upon what authority he makes the statements we do not know, but it is clearly evident they are unreliable. Mr. Doane, May 18, 1678, declared his age to be ‘88 or thereabouts,’ which shows he was born about 1590. Consecuently, in 1645, when he came to Eastham, he was not far from fifty-five years of age. Mr. Doane, it is certain, died in 1686, having lived here about forty-one years, not sixty-four, as Mr. Pratt has it. If Mr. Doane’s statement made in 1678 is reliable, at his death in 1686 he was about ninety-six years of age. Tradition, says Mr. Pratt, in 1844, has it, ‘that he was rocked in a cradle several of his last years.’
He made his will May 18, 1678. It was preesented to probate June 2, 1686. HIs wife mentioned was Abigail. Whether she was the mother of his children or not, the writer has not been ablt to ascertain satisfactorily. They, too, were undoubtedly interred in the old cemetery at Eastham. No correct record of the children of Mr. John Doane appears; but it is cerain he had Abigail, Lydia, John, Daniel and Ephraim. From these three sons have descended the Doanes of the Cape, Connecticut, Ohio, and of other places in the United States.
From Vernon Brigg’s History and Genealogy of the Briggs Family:42
John, the founder of the Doane family in America, came from England to Plymouth with his wife Abigail in 1629 or 1630. He was one of the 35 of the Leyden Company. He was a freeman in 1633, and a Deacon of the Plymouth Church. He was frequently granted land by the Colony Court in recognition of his services in behalf of the Colony. He settled at Nauset on the north of Town Cove, where he took possession of about 200 acres of land. His house stood near the water, and there in 1869 the Doane Family Association held a meeting and erected a granite post to mark the site of his house.