Copies of Doane Wills Photographed

The will of Deacon John Doane, Sr., (Abt 1590-1685):

Though it is very faint, you can still read parts of it. This is where I got the title for this blog several years ago:  from the phrase,"in your journey heavenward..."  See a transcription here at my previous post: http://huseland.blogspot.com/2012/07/john-doanes-will.html

The Inventory taken of John Doane, Sr.'s estate:

The will of John Doane, Jr. (1633-1708):
Notice that John Jr. copies a large section from his father's will, as a spiritual preamble that inspires his own confession of faith and prayer for his children to not lose interest in Jesus Christ.

The Inventory of John Doane, Jr.'s estate:

The Will of Samuel Doane (1673-1756):

The Inventory of Samuel Doane's estate:

Sworn affidavits from people saying they received their portion of the estate.  Notice Thomas Cook, signing about a portion given to his wife Dinah Doane Cook.

Journal for Thursday, July 26

Thursday morning was my journey back in time on Cape Cod.  Our trio of buses wound its way counter-clockwise from Plymouth at a 9-o'clock angle, across the canal at 7 o'clock, through Barnstable at 6 o'clock, and on to Eastham at 4 o'clock.  We finished near Provincetown at 12 o'clock and faced north toward the sea.

 Albert, the Doane College mascot, poses on the bus with a 17th Century Plymouth house behind him.

The day began with a comfortable ride in the charter bus next to Derek Done, my friend, who has led the Deacon John Done History Committee for the last few years and done invaluable research in England. We drove past the pine forest south of Plymouth and approached the Cape Cod Canal, which truly made the Cape an island.

I had gone back in my time travel machine, until I rounded the hook, the tip of the peninsula, and saw those beaches which the Pilgrims first spied when they looked at a bewildering New England.

Near Provincetown, Cape Cod

 A presentation made by _____________ at the Sea Rescue Museum on the Cape.

 The Chatham Rescue Station which was relocated to the tip of Cape Cod as a museum.

Our coach tour continued by retracing our steps to Eastham, to the Old Cove Burying Ground.  Here James (our fearless historical tour guide) was giving some information about who was buried here.  My ancestors Deacon John Doane, and John Doane, Jr., were all buried here.

(as well as another ancestor, Giles Hopkins, Mayflower passenger)

John Doane Jr.'s son Samuel Doane was buried at Bridge Road Cemetery, Eastham, Mass.

 This is my beloved Doane Rock, which used to lie within the boundaries of the Deacon's homestead. It is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and has its own Wikipedia page. As a Doane recently said, "Plymouth Rock? What's up with that? Now Doane Rock, that's a Rock."

 Jane Andersen giving a talk at the Doane Homestead plot. It was great to be standing where his home used to be.  The old stone marker you see was set up in the 1860's by a Doane descendant to mark the corner of the cellar where you could still see an impression in the ground.

After taking some pictures of Doane Rock, we headed back into the buses and rode back to Orleans for a meal and a quick look at the grave of Thomas Doane, who helped build the railroad across Nebraska and founded Doane College there.  Then we piled into the buses back to Plymouth.  It was a long day, but so worthwhile.

Journal for Wednesday, July 25

By Wednesday, my trip to New England had only just started.  I got in late Tuesday night and met Derek, my roommate from England.  He showed me where to register.  I got to bed that night pretty exhausted from my long day flying, driving, and researching in Connecticut.


Now the sun was up, and I had a thrilling day ahead of me, my first experience of Plymouth, Massachusetts. There were a lot of Doane Family association events planned, but I managed to slip out and see some of the sights today.  

A normal looking street like any other American town

Town Brooke, the stream that attracted the Pilgrims to settle here by fresh water

 

Town Brooke

Jenney Grist Mill

These are the two main churches at the top of Plymouth's first road, Leyden Street.  The brown one is the former Congregational Church which first met in 1621 as the Pilgrims' Church, and claims to be the continuing congregation since their day.  Unfortunately by 1801 this church had been infected by the new Unitarian heresy, and departed from Biblical Christian beliefs.  A minority, who still held to the Pilgrims' faith in Christ as the Son of God, had no choice but to leave and start their own (Congregational) church next door.

This is the sign on the Congregational Church that remembers the split. Sadly this UCC church has now become deeply liberal, and only gives lip service to traditional Christian doctrines.  

Two years ago it decided to become an open and affirming congregation, choosing to side with a politically correct version of faith rather than the teaching of Jesus on sexuality.  This raises the question if our sexuality exists for pleasing oneself, or honoring God.  I suggest that the Bible describes only two sexual orientations; self-orientation, and God-orientation. Both heterosexuals and homosexuals can live for their own freedom to indulge themselves.  On the other hand, I believe that sexuality is a gift from God to be used in accordance with the designer's direction.  This view helps me to neither be arrogant (I respect gay people) nor accommodating ideas that do not agree with Scripture.  I see both temptations affecting Christian churches today... angry, superior attitudes or subservient equivocation.  I reject both.  God is our greatest pleasure (Psalm 16:11), the bed is meant to honor him (Hebrews 13:4) and all of life was made to be experienced for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) but according to His categories, not our own (Romans 12:1) because we cannot trust our own intuitions and motives (Proverbs 14:12).  In this I consulted also a lesser source, Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, in which he describes what happened in the Colony in 1642:

• Marvelous it may be to see and consider how some kind of wickedness did grow and breake forth here, in a land where the same was so much witnessed against, and so narrowly looked unto, and severely punished when it was knowne; as in no place more, or so much, that I have known or heard of; insomuch as they have been somewhat censured, even by moderate and good men, for their severity in punishments. And yet all this could not suppress the breaking out of sundry notorious sins, (as this year, besides other, gives us too many sad precedents and instances,) especially drunkenness and uncleaness; not only incontinencie between persons unmarried, for which many both men and women have been punished sharply enough, but some married persons also. But that which is worse, even sodomy and buggery, (things fearful to name) have broke forth in this land, oftener than once. I say it may justly be marveled at, and cause us to fear and tremble at the consideration of our corrupte natures, which are so hardly bridled, subdued, and mortified; nay, cannot by any other means but the powerful worke and grace of Gods spirit. 

I pray that God will give Christians in America love & patience towards homosexual people, but courage to resist redefining the Bible and its claims upon us.  It is sad to see the yoga parlors and witchcraft seminars in Plymouth, demonstrations of spiritual blindness and empty searching.   All very foreign to the Separatists of Plymouth... or was it?  Their time in England and the Netherlands exposed them to many ideas in which people pooh-poohed taking the Bible seriously as the rule for faith and life.  That is why they saw themselves as pilgrims in this world.

The SE corner of Leyden and Main Streets; this is where Stephen Hopkins' house stood by 1630

 The SW corner of the crossroads, where Elder William Brewster's house was first built

The Memorial Fountain to Women of the Mayflower

(that is not Cosmopolitan magazine under her arm)

A nice example of 19th century architecture in Plymouth

(and the setting of Cecilia Knowles' house in my short story I'm writing)

Pilgrim Hall Museum

Awesome--a house 370 years old?? I sadly didn't have time to see inside.

Another view of Town Brooke (from Saturday AM)

 The delightful walk along Town Brooke

Beautiful Plymouth Harbor

Last week Tuesday afternoon

Right.  So after spending a few hours in Hartford, I hopped in my rental car to look for the gravestones of some very special people on the Tryon side.  There was some debate about where Lucas' parents were buried.  I knew when they died, they lived near Berlin, Connecticut.  So off I went to the Maple Grove Cemetery on Worthington Ridge, Berlin.  A helpful worker who was mowing the lawn said he saw their headstone that day, and pointed me in the direction of the Old South Cemetery.

And there it was--one stone for both!

 JOHN TRYON, DIED SEPT. 1815, AE. (age) 66. 

RHODA LUCAS, DIED AUG. 1814, Wife of JOHN TRYON.
(my great-great-great-great-grandparents)

This is the Congregational church in Berlin, CT.  This is the same one John and Rhoda attended, and John was mentioned in church records as holding Episcopalian beliefs.  See my post at http://huseland.blogspot.com/2012/05/on-trail-of-lucas-tryon.html.

I drove on to Middletown, the nearest city to the Tryon home.  Many of my family were baptized or married here, in the First Congregational Church.

Scenes from Main Street.  You can tell a storm had just passed over.

I got some directions from these helpful firemen: "Where's the Old Farm Hill Cemetery?"  Answer: Talk to the South Fire Station.

The countryside where the Tryons farmed

The next fire station I stopped at gave me precise directions.

Old Farm Hill Cemetery was where John Tryon's folks were buried.

In Memory of

MR. THOMAS TRYON,

who died

July 24, 1804

Aged 96 Years 

(John's father)

In Memory Of

MRS. MARY

the wife of

MR. THOMAS TRYON

who died January 23rd,

1778, in the 70th

Year of her

Age.

IN

Memory of Mr.

ABEL TRYON

who died January

29th, 1761

In his 78th Year.

In Memory of

MRS. ABIAH

WIFE OF MR.

ABEL TRYON

who died Nov. 30th, 1756

In the 72nd Year of her

Age.

(partially defaced)

The gravestone of Obadiah Brainerd, 

a 2nd cousin of David Brainerd

An experiment with sepia tone

Countryside on the way to Durham, CT 

Durham is about 6 miles from Middletown.  This is where the Cook side of my family was buried.  They moved from Massachusetts to Connecticut in the 1730's.

A typical house from the colonial period.

Old Durham Cemetery

(my great x 6 grandfather who married

Dinah Doane, the Deacon's great-granddaughter)

In Memory of

MR. THOMAS

COOK

who died May 31, 1774

Aged 77 Years.

Let Survivors think of

A dying world and a durable

Heaven.

Footstone for Thomas Cook.

Memorial stone for Charles Chauncey

Proof that I drove through Rhode Island!

I got in to Plymouth, Mass. late Tuesday night, and checked into my room at the John Carver Inn.  I was wiped out.  It had been a busy day with many discoveries.