Legend has it that the Doan family were Quaker pacifists in Plumstead Township who were targeted by patriot tax collectors, thus coercing them to side with the British. And that the father of the family, Joseph, was a devout, law abiding citizen who was victimized by his sons.
At the core of the gang were 5 brothers: Moses, Aaron, Mahlon, Levi, and Joseph, who were the sons of Joseph, Sr., and their cousin Abraham. Moses appears to have been the ringleader and was a British spy and horse thief during the revolution. Over the years, the band grew to include nearly 30 members as friends and relatives came not only from the Doans’ home territory in Plumstead, but also from other parts of southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.
Over the centuries, the mythology about the Doans and their “accomplishments” has become greatly exaggerated. One of the first historically documented exploits of the Doan gang, however, was also their most spectacular feat. On the night of October 22, 1781, just 3 days after Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, a dozen or so of the gang rode into Newtown, forced their way into the home of county treasurer John Hart, took his keys and then stole the county treasury from the small office building near the courthouse. The gang continued their robberies and depredations for nearly two years before the law caught up with them. By this time Moses had been killed in a shoot-out, Aaron and Joseph had fled to Canada, and Mahlon disappeared in New York City. Eventually Levi and his cousin Abraham would be sentenced and hanged in Philadelphia in 1788. Their bodies were brought back to Plumstead for burial. Modern day markers outside the burial ground wall of the Plumstead meetinghouse indicate the grave sites.
HOWEVER, we now know that the Plumstead Doans were NOT Quakers. Research has revealed that the generation of Doans that moved to the Newtown area of Bucks County from New England did become Quaker, but there was trouble from the very beginning. Daniel Doan, the great-grandfather of the outlaws, was disowned from Middletown meeting in 1711 for his study of astrology.
Daniel’s son, Israel, who was the grandfather of the outlaws, and presumably raised as a Quaker. He was disowned in 1725 for marrying outside the faith. Israel and his brother, Dan Jr. were the first Doans in Plumstead Township. There is no mention that Israel’s sons, who were the fathers of the outlaws, nor the outlaws themselves, were ever practicing Quakers. All that being said, the majority of the Doan family members who were not in the direct line of the outlaw branch remained devout Quakers. They continued to practice the Quaker faith in Bucks County and Canada for many generations.
Clint Flack, Mercer Museum, Doylestown Pennsylvania
See: The Doan Gang