John Doane's will

Why am I going to New England next week?  It's a sort of historical/spiritual pilgrimage, to pause my life and seek the God of my fathers... my forefathers, that is.  As in dead white dudes.  I want to understand them by seeing where they lived, the landscape in which they walked.  Yet I am definitely not going there to worship them or put them on a pedestal.  I want especially to understand one man, John Doane, my ancestor (1590-1685), who came to Plymouth Plantation ten years after the Mayflower landed.  He was a deacon of the Pilgrims' church three years after he arrived.  They probably knew him from London or Leiden, Holland.

He didn't leave much of a personal paper trail... but there is a will.  And the will is the secret to understanding what a dying man's thoughts are.  When I read it I am moved by his devotion to Christ, his concern for his wife and children.  I also borrowed the name of my blog from his will, too.  Here is a transcription of it from 1678, when he wrote it out:


Eastham in the Colony of New Plimouth in New England this 18th of May 1678, I John Doane aged eighty and eight years or thereabout, in consideration of my many Infirmitees that daily attend me and may in a moment close up my Life, and therfore do think it meet to make this my last will and testament; and first I give my soul to god that gave it and my body to a decent burial In the earth from whence it was taken.


And for my outward estate I do dispose of it to those that God hath given me In the Bonds of Nature, and it being of Little vallue in your journey heavenward I do exhort you all to Labour after, Indever, and be Laying out for the kingdom of Righteousness thereof and an Inheritance amongst the saints In Light and then all your needs and wants will be supplied.


And to my Loving wife I give Loane and bequeath my now dwelling house Scituated and being In the Town of Eastham with all the upland and meadow about ye sd house and two acres of meadow more or less In a place comonly called ye Acres. Likewise I give to my Loving wife all my moveables of all kinds as household stuff cattle of all kinds or whatsoever are mine I give wholy and fulley for her comfortable subsistence during her Life, And after decease I give the house land and meadow above specified to my daughter Abigal Doane I make my son John Doane whole and sole executor and to my sd John Doane I give twenty seven acres of upland more or less seven acres of it Lyeth Joyning to a parcel of land the Towne granted him and fifteen acres of it Lyeth on the west side of Rockharbour mouth and the other five acres Lyeth at Nauset Joyning to my sd Sonn John his Land And I give to my sd sonn John Doane eight acres of land at poche Island with all my right and Interest in the Towne of Eastham as being a Towne purcheser and to my sd son John I give a tract of Land granted to me by the honnoured court holden at plimouth by his magesties order Invested with power to do equity and Justice to his poor distresed Subjectes the grant was a hundred acres of upland and meadow Answerable to it.


I give to my son Daniel Doane all that Land which he now Liveth upon and twenty acres of land nere a place called the dry swamp; and I give to my sd son Daniel four acres and a half of meadow scituate and being on the southerly side of the boat meadow I give to my son Ephraim Doane twenty acres of upland and four acres of meadow be it more or less scituate and being at little Billingsgate.
I give to my granddaughter Margaret Hixs one Trunk and one payer of sheets.


I give to my above sd son John Doane my great Table and the forme that belongs unto it and I make him whole and sole executor of this my Last will and testament that after my wife is deceased and the debts paid out of my estate to devide what is Left equaly amongst all my sons and daughters. And so I leave you all to the Lord in whose hand I desire you may be all kept by his allmighty power threw faith unto salvation which is my great and earnist desire for you all and rest and under hopefulIness that you will Live in Love and peace here walking in Love one with another and the God of Love and peace be with you and bring you to the kingdom of peace at Last.


Signed and sealed
In the presence of us JOHN DOANE
SAMUEL FREEMAN.      
GERSHOM HALL.




Samuel Freeman made oath in Court ye 2d June 1685 that he see John Doane signe seal & declare this to be his Last will and Testament & that he was of disposing mind when he so did.
As Attest JOHN WALLEY Assist.
Gershom Hall made oath in the prerogative Court in Barnstable May ye 31th 1687 that he saw John Doane signe seal and declare this to be his last will and Testament and that he was of a disposing when he did so.
Attest JOSEPH LOTHROP D R
Truly Transcribed out of the original duly compared therewith and entered June ye 8th 1687.
Attest JOSEPH LOTHROP Depy Registar