Aaron Doane (abt. 1756 - 1844)

Born about 1756 in Plumstead, Bucks, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Rhoda (Cook) Doane — married 1790 in Humberstone, Ontario, Canada

Descendants

Died 2 Aug 1844 at about age 88 in Humberstone, Welland, Canada West

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Aaron Doane was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: September 17, 1787 pardoned by Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania exiled to Canada. In the War of 1812, he was drafted and served in the British Army

Biography

A founding members of the Doan Outlaws. The Doane Outlaws were a notorious gang of brothers from a Quaker family most renowned for being British spies during the American Revolution.^[1]

THE DOAN GANG WERE THE scourge of Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the late 1700s

The Doan Gang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKOEfa_1P48

Comprised of five brothers—Moses, Joseph, Levi, Mahlon, and Aaron—and a cousin, Abraham, the Doans were from a Quaker family and were loyal to the King during the Revolutionary War. They were also renowned horse thieves. The Doans would steal horses from residents of Bucks County and sell them to the Redcoats in Philadelphia and Baltimore during the war. It was said they stole over 200 horses. Sometimes, they would steal horses just for the sport of it. They would take a neighbor’s horse and then return it, only to take it again just to show that they could.

The Revolution ended in 1781, but the Doan Gang’s crime sprees continued.

Doan family Cemetery

On July 10, 2010, the City of Port Colborne held a ceremony to rename what was formerly known as the Steele Cemetery to Doan Cemetery. It was already designated a United Empire Loyalist burial site. The cemetery received a heritage designation plaque under the Ontario Heritage Act. The cemetery at 2146 Second Concession in Port Colborne will receive the designation because of cultural and historical significance to the area.

The land is associated with the Doan, Steele, Knisley and Michener families, some of the first settlers in Humberstone Township. It is part of the original Crown patent awarded to United Empire Loyalist Aaron Doan on May 17, 1802. Doan allotted a portion of this property for his family burying ground. In 1849 Aaron's son Timothy Doan, deeded 0.4 hectares (one acre) to Christian Knisley for a burying ground. In 1864, Aaron's grandson Aaron Doan deeded eight parcels of land to William Michener for a burying ground. On the same day in 1864 Aaron's grandson Aaron deeded a portion of the surrounding land to Matthias Steele. The division of the cemetery was clearly defined in the deed which conveyed the surrounding land to Matthias Steele.

Steele's Cemetery is rectangular in shape, 45 metres (150 feet) by 30.9 metres (103 feet), containing the Aaron Doan, Christian Knisley and William Michener family burying grounds. The first known burials would have been those of Aaron Doan's children, Seth and Polly.

The cemetery features many original grave markers dating back to before 1844.

"Aaron Doane was born in Plumstead, Bucks Co., Pa. and died August 2, 1844 in Humberstone, Welland, Ontario, Canada.^[2] He married, in Humberstone, Rhoda Cook.

According to the confession of the Vickers boys, he was concerned in the robbery of the Bucks county treasury at Newtown, in the raid upon collectors Barton of Buckingham, Keith of Makefield and others. In consequence of participation in those robberies, he came under the Proclamation of Sept. 13, 1783, and was arrested in Baltimore Co., Md. about the middle of Aug., 1784, and conveyed by his captors, Joseph McClennan and Amos Ogden, to the jail in Philadelphia. Being identified by Capt. Robert Gibson he was held for trial on the charge of outlawry, tried, convicted and condemned to be hanged in Sept., 1784, but shortly after his conviction, he addressed the following petition to the Supreme Executive Council:

To His Excellency John Dickenson, Esq., Govenor of the State of Pennsylvania & President of the Executive Council.

The humble Petition of Aaron Doane, a poor unhappy Man, now under Sentence of Death in the Gaol of Philadelphia.

Most humbly Sheweth.

That your unfortunate Petitioner deeply Impressed with a full Sense of your Merciful Generosity for the Extension of a few days Life, most humbly throws himself at thy Mercy Seat praying thy Compassion, Humanity and Mercy. Innocent of the Crime laid to his Charge, Outlawed & being absent from the State, which hinder'd his knowledge thereof, He is now Condemned to Suffer an Ignominious death, unheard or even Tried to know if he was guilty of the Crime or not. Oh thou Great Ruler, to whom the Laws have given the power of being the Dispenser of Life and death—Seal not my Death —Have Mercy on an innocent Man—Shed not my Blood unheard or Tried—If by the Outlawry I am to Suffer—Consider thou great Governor, my Innocence, my not being Tried, not being heard and the Tower vested in thee, to Extend it to Objects of Mercy— Save then my Life oh gracious Judge—Let Mercy and Compassion preside in thy Breast over Rigorous Law—Let thy Government l)e Crowned by Lenity moderation and Mercy, not Rigor or Resentment—Pardon thy Suppliant Petitioner, Extend thy mercy towards him—Give thy distressed Servant another Sentence—Banish to other Territories thy unfortunate Suppliant—But let not thy humane hand Seal my Death Unheard or Untried, but Shew thy Mercy; and may the Almighty Dispenser of Life and Death, take thee in his charge will be ever the prayer of the wretched unfortunate.

New Gaol 17 Oct. 1784. Aaron Doan To His Excellency Juo Dickenson Esq. Govornor of the State of Pennsylvania.

This petition was supplemented by a second one in November of the next year as follows :

To His Excellency the President & the Hon'ble the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: The Petition of Aaron Doane a languishing Prisoner in the Jail of the City and County of Philadelphia,

Most humbly sheweth,

That your Petitioner unfortunately fell under the Suspicion of this Hon'ble Board as being an Accomplice in the Robbery of the Treasurer of Bucks Co., in the year 1781 or thereabouts, for which supposed Crime he was called on by Proclamation of this Honorable Board to surrender himself a prisoner and undergo his Trial for the same. That not being well advised he neglected to do so whereby he became outlaw'd or attainted & with several others was afterwards apprehended & brought before the Hon'ble the Supreme Court and asked what he had to say why Judgment of Death should not pass upon him ; that having unadvisedly suffered his Time prescribed to expire without a surrender of his person, his Innocense of the Fact stood him in no stead and not being able to deny that he was the person prescribed under his Name Judgment of Death was accordingly passed on him & he has now remained in Jail under a heavy Load of Irons upwards of fifteen months. Your Petitioner most solemnly declares his Innocense of the said Fact & his utter Ignorance of the Time manner and Persons who committed the said Robbery except from Information he has had since his Confinement, and for the Truth of this Declaration he appeals to the confession of Robert Johnson Steel one of the Persons who was actually Guilty & has been pardoned, who declared before his Honor the Chief Justice & is now ready to repeat it before this Honorable Board, that your Petitioner was not a party nor privy to sd Robbery Your Petitioner therfore, most humbly prays that this Hon'ble Board will be pleased to take his Case into their Consideration & extend their Clemency to him, in as much as so long & grievous an Imprisonment may justly be deemed a sufficient Attonement for his Negligence, or Contempt of the Laws of his Country, for which he most heartily begs Pardon.

And your Petitioner will ever pray, &c. Aaron Doan. Philad'a Jail, Nov. 8, 1785.

On the 17th of May, 1787, the Supreme Executive Council ordered in the case of Aaron Doan that he be pardoned on condition that he transport himself across the seas, not to return to the United States. On the 28th of the same month he petitioned the Council for a short time before going away, in which to collect certain debts, " subject to the penalty of death if found in any of the United States after the expiration of said given time." He chose Canada for his place of exile and settled in the township of Humberstone. In Canada he was a member of the Methodist church, was a good neighbor, a genial friend and bore a good reputation for honesty and integrity. During the invasion of Canada by the Americans in the War of 1812, he was drafted and served in the British army."^[3]

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The Friends made little or no resistance, and with very rare exceptions made no attempt at reprisals. A conspicuous exception in Bucks County was the case of the Doans, whose exploits have furnished a slight foundation of truth for the most exaggerated tales of reckless villainy. John Doane, the founder of the family in America, was one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and a carpenter by trade. He came from England in 1630 and settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The family appears to have remained in this region until 1630, when a grandson, Daniel, having joined the Quakers at a time when persecution was waxing hot against that sect, came to Middletown, in Bucks County. He appears at first to have been prominent in the society here, but three years later rumors that he meddled “in predictions by astrologie" brought him into trouble, and in 1711 was disowned by the meeting. Of his thirteen children Israel alone is necessary to connect the characters of this sketch with the founder. He lived at Middletown, Wrightstown, and finally squatted on public lands in Plumstead prior to 1726. He went out “from among the Friends to consummate his marriage," and was dropped from the membership of the society. Of his eight children Joseph and Israel, Jr., only are connected with this story. The latter was the father of five children, of whom Abraham was one of the noted characters of the family in the time of the revolution. Joseph was a carpenter, had nine children, and five of his six sons became the most notorious of local desperadoes in the county. These were Joseph, Jr., Moses, Aaron, Levi, and Mahlon, Thomas being but a boy at this time.

Prior to the beginning of the hostilities of the revolutionary period the Doans appear to have been quiet, inoffensive citizens, the elder son, Joseph, teaching school in his native township. The boys were noted for their athletic powers, especially in wrestling and jumping, but there is little foundation for the vague, traditions of their “pure cussedness" which delighted in malicious mischief for the sake of its “devilment." What the particular grievance was that turned them into their subsequent course is not clearly ascertained. As early as 1778 the name of Joseph Doan, “laborer," appeared in a published list of Tories, and it is probable that they sympathized with the royal cause from the first. On June 15th, 1778, “sundry inhabitants of Bucks County" complained to the executive council ' that “the lower part of this county is greatly infested by a set of traitorous robbers" who pillaged houses and stole horses and cattle “to the very great distress of the well-affected citizens."

It is not certain whether the Doans were among those thus complained of, but they very soon afterward became conspicuous in their ravages, and while they adopted little disguise became the object of much complaint levelled at “persons unknown." Public property at first constituted the chief object of their reprisals, though the “well-affected" suffered hardly less in the loss of horses. Complaints of “ruffians, armed banditti, and robbers," depositions and affidavits of robbed tax-collectors, at least four proclamations offering high rewards for the capture of these " persons unknown" appeared before any determined effort was made to apprehend them.

The most celebrated exploit of this gang was the robbery of the county treasury on October 22, 1781, at Newtown. It was one o'clock at night when, as John Hart, the treasurer, was eating a late supper on his return from a journey, a slight noise at the door of his residence was followed by the abrupt entrance of seven " brown figures, in linsey-woolsey coats, knee-breeches of sheepskin or plush, and small soft felt hats with round crowns. Some wore hunting-shirts bound in at the waist, with large handkerchiefs, and all carried weapons, cocked pistols, heavy clubs, swords, or army flint-lock muskets." The treasurer had with him only his housekeeper, and a neighbor, who had dropped in to hear the news, when his intrusive visitors arrived, and as they arose in alarm on the appearance of the marauders, their fears were in some degree quieted by the remarks of the leader, who turned to Mr. Hart with a cocked pistol and demanded his name.

This was Robert Johnston Steel, hanged in Philadelphia for this robbery in 1785. At the same moment a ruddy-faced, heavily-built man stepped up to Mr. Hart. His bearskin overcoat was closely buttoned, and a large black "scollop-rimmed hat" thrown back upon his head displayed a remarkably heavy jaw and large mouth, clean shaven in the fashion of the time. He wore blue yarn stockings, and the firelight flashed on the large French buckles of his shoes. He stood very straight; one hand was thrust into the pocket of his greatcoat, from which several pistol butts protruded, and a heavy club moved and twitched in the other, as in the grasp of a very strong man. This was Moses Doan. Like the rest of the band he was excited with drink, and it was many a year before Mr. Hart forgot the flush of Jamaica rum in his face, his fierce oaths, and the ring of his voice as he asked him his name, and shaking pistol and club in his face called for the key of the treasury. Mr. Hart may well have quailed; part of the money was in the house, and he admitted it. In a moment, having seized a spare candle on the table, one of the band. Woodward and five others are ransacking the sitting-room, the upper rooms and the cellar, breaking the locks of chests, closets, and cupboards, searching under beds and sofas, and rattling and rummaging everywhere. Two men were left to guard the kitchen and its inmates. Upstairs, as the light and noise enter one of the bed-rooms, a frightened youthful voice makes itself heard, and the candle-light falls upon several childish forms, now wide awake, and huddled together in a small bed. "Don't cry, there," said one of the men, as stooping down he dragged from under Mr. Hart's bed a large package stuffed with packages of paper money. In a moment the robbers were again down stairs and had surrounded Mr. Hart, who did not dare to deny that the "hard money" was in the treasury. Thither they started with a lantern and candle, leaving Mr. Hart and his companions still under guard. One Woodward carried the office key, and it is said wore the overcoat of Mr. Hart, in hopes of passing for him if seen in the darkness by a neighbor. We may suppose that the robbers did not lose much time hurrying towards the treasury—the small prothonotary's office, near the courthouse. They were accompanied by Jesse Vickers, a neighbor ally of the Doans, from Plumstead, and his brother Solomon, who had not gone into the house. There was only one halt, and that near the jail wall, where they met a townsman on his way home. They stopped him; he had evidently suspected something, and Jesse Vickers waited to guard him. It was but a few steps to the treasury, and unlocking the door and entering they found themselves in a small vaulted chamber, with little in it save a chair, a desk, and several boxes lying upon the floor and around the empty fire-place. In the desk, which they easily broke open, they found a quantity of paper and silver money, which they took; the gold, with a considerable sum of state money, as Mr. Hart is glad to say in his deposition, escaping their search. In all they carried off, Mr. Hart says, the precise sum of £735 17s. 9 1/2d. in silver, besides the paper money found in the house and office. "This being done," continues Mr. Hart in his statement, "and after having kept me and my associates under guard, as I think, upward of three hours, they left my house, but in so cautious a manner that I could not know the time of their final departure, as some of them were heard loitering out of doors, on both sides of the house, a considerable time after they had gone out of it. Further, I have reason to believe at the time of the robbery the perpetrators were between twelve and twenty in number, as I frequently saw five or six of them together, and at the same time heard others of them both in doors and without, who were not in sight."

Possessed of their booty the band hastened to a spot on the outskirts of the town, probably one of the thickets north of the village and near the turnpike leading to Wrightstown, and there finding their horses they rode rapidly to the old Wrightstown school-house, where being joined by several other allies and accomplices, all coming in for a share of the plunder, they divided the money. Jesse and Solomon Vickers wore there, who were afterwards, when captured and promised pardon, induced to betray their confederates ; John and Caleb Paul were there, sons of James Paul, of Warminster; Edward Connard, from Maryland, and two men named Woodward, from Crosswicks, in New Jersey ; Robert Steel, a desperate character, whose case appears in volume 2 of Dallas' Reports ; George Burns and George Sinclair, and Moses and Aaron Doan ; the notorious John Tomlinson and his son Joseph; Moses Winder, a tax-collector, who had played into their hands ; and John Atkinson, a gunsmith, of Newtown. The latter had given information to the conspirators and mended several gun-locks for the expedition. That very night, when Moses Doan had ridden through Newtown to see if the coast was clear, he had called at Atkinson's house, but the latter for some reason best known to himself had not been at home. The wily Jeremiah Cooper, too, was there, who afterwards, being suspected, was obliged to fly from home to escape justice. Also one Meyers, a German doctor, who, Vickers says, brought much information to Tomlinson, visiting his house on pretended medical visits, and often remaining there all night. Sixteen or seventeen shares were dealt out, of about $280 each, the minor accomplices like Winder, Atkinson, and Joseph Tomlinson receiving about forty dollars apiece. The expedition had been, as the proclamation of the following Thursday (October 25, 1781), said, "but too successful."

With all their reckless boldness these freebooters continued to pursue their career of plunder unchecked. Several considerations doubtless contributed to secure them the immunity which they so long enjoyed. The community in which they took refuge was largely composed of Mennonites, peaceful in their habits and unaccustomed to bold enterprises. The fearlessness and success of the outlaws commanded a certain respect for their prowess, and many were silenced either by their threats or their many acts of personal kindness. The fact that the heaviest loss fell upon the public treasury also tended to quiet private concern, while the authorities fully occupied with larger affairs found no time to make a determined pursuit of the band. About 1782, however, they passed the limit which had hitherto been their safeguard. The stealing of a horse from Mr. Shaw, of Plumstead, was traced to the gang, and exasperated by the boldness of their neighbor after they had become accustomed to a general submission, the band visited the plucky farmer " at the dead of night," seized all his horses, plundered his house, and left him bruised and bleeding. The band then proceeded to the house of Joseph Grier, and robbed him ; and going to the tavern kept by Robert Robinson, a very corpulent man, they dragged him from his bed, placed him naked in their midst, and then, after tying him in an excruciating position, whipped him until ferocity was satiated. Several others fell victim to their villainy before they retreated to Montgomery County.

A hue and cry was at once raised against the band, but such was the general timidity of the community that it was some time before a company of determined young men could be mustered for the pursuit. The avengers, however, made rapid progress when once on the way and overtook the band on Skippack creek, where the miscreants abandoned their horses and fled to the thickets. Joseph was shot through the cheek and captured. He afterward escaped from prison, and engaged in teaching school in New Jersey under an assumed name, but finding himself in danger of discovery fled to Canada. Moses, the leader of the gang, secreted himself with two brothers in a retired cabin near the mouth of Tohickon creek. Their retreat was discovered and a party under the command of John Hart undertook their capture. The outlaws seized their arms at the first alarm and killed one of the party of citizens. Two escaped from a window that was insufficiently guarded and Moses surrendered, when he was shot and killed by a volunteer member of the party, who has been suspected of a guilty interest in the leader's death. Levi was taken and subsequently hung; Mahlon was also captured, but made his escape from prison, and taking ship to England was never heard of more. Aaron was captured, but eventually released on condition of leaving the country. He went to Canada, where with his brother Joseph he entered the army against the United States in the war of 1812. Joseph was taken prisoner, but soon after was exchanged at New York.^[4]

Aaron Doan served as a private with the 2nd Regiment, Lincoln Militia.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Doan Outlaws
2. ↑ Headstone
3. ↑ Alfred Alder Doane. “The Doane family: 1. Deacon John Doane, of Plymouth, 2. Doctor John Done, of Maryland, and their descendants. With notes upon English families of the same name.” Boston, A. A. Doane 1902:Pgs. 238-24
4. ↑ J.H. Battle. “History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; including an account of its original exploration; its relation to the settlements of New Jersey and Delaware; its erection into a separate county, also its subsequent growth and development, with sketches of its historic and interesting localities, and biographies of many of its representative citizens”, (Philadelphia, Chicago, A. Warner & Co. 1887)pgs. 295-300
5. ↑ Library and Archives Canada, War of 1812, Nominal Return, 15554

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34283204/aaron-doan : accessed 20 November 2021), memorial page for Aaron Doan (1756–2 Aug 1844), Find a Grave Memorial ID 34283204, citing Doan Cemetery, Port Colborne, Niagara Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Becky Doan (contributor 46821009) .

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Bruce Kinsey for creating WikiTree profile Doan-605 through the import of Kinsey-13.GED on Sep 2, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Bruce and others.