Constance? Doane

Not the daughter of Nicholas Snow & Constance (Hopkins) Snow, "Mayflower" Passenger

Biography

updated 12 December 2024

Deacon Daniel Doane was the son of John Done and his wife Ann. He was born abt 1636, probably in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, and died at Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts Bay, before 26 Sept 1712.

He was twice married. Nothing is known of his first wife, including her name.[1][2] She doubtless was the mother of all the children, except the daughter Hepzibah. His second wife, whom he married after July 28, 1682, was Hepzibah (Cole) Crisp, widow of George Crisp, and daughter of Daniel and Mary Cole of Eastham. She was many years his junior, and survived him.

Daniel Doane's marriages are not recorded in Eastham records. His first wife is believed by some genealogists to have been Constance Snow, daughter of Nicholas and Constance (Hopkins), but no documentary evidence has been found. The assumption is based upon the names of two of his children : Constant (a son) and Constance (a daughter). The Society of Mayflower Descendants has not accepted this assumption.[1][2]

In 2019, Mayflower Descendant reported that mtDNA tests for daughters of Constance Hopkins showed that the Doane line was not related. See (document attached).

10 Children:

1. A son drowned in a well, September, 1667.
2. Joseph, born about 1668.
3. Constant (son), March 7, 1669-70.
4. Israel, born about 1672.
5. Daniel, see forward.
6. Nathaniel, died in Harwich in 1758.
7. Constant (daughter), died May 2, 1720; married George Shaw.
8. Rebecca, married Benjamin Myrick, of Eastham.
9. Abigail, married Timothy Dimock and settled in Mansfield, Connecticut.
10. Ruth, died before March 15, 1722; married Nathaniel Mayo.

    ---

Notes

NEHGS, Vol 127, April 1973 page 102:

"The authority for naming Constant SNOW as the first wife of Daniel DOANE appers to be a notebook on Eastham families kept by Josiah PAINE, for half a century the town clerk of Harwich. The notebook is now in the possession of the Eastham Public Library. Mr. PAINE did not cite the sources of his information unless it came from individuals, so it may be assumed that he found some evidence for his statement; however no one had discovered where he found it.

It should be noted that the MAYFLOWER SOCIETY doesn NOT accept lines of descent through the first wife of Daniel DOANE."

For some reason the marriage of Daniel and Constance and their children were not recorded in the Eastham, Barnstable Massachusetts records.

The Mayflower Families, Vol. 6, "Stephen Hopkins", p. 9-10, 23-24, 83-84.
The following is from Gene Zubrinsky( 47226970 ), who is also a published contributor to NEHGS:

In a notebook on Eastham families, the historian Josiah Paine (1836–1917), for half a century town clerk of Harwich (formerly adjacent to Eastham), asserted that Daniel Doane’s first wife was a daughter of Nicholas and Constant/Constance (Hopkins) Snow who had been named after her mother; Paine failed, however, to cite a source (Elizabeth Pearson White, “The Godfreys of Chatham, Mass.,” _New England Historical and Genealogical Register_ [NEHGR] 127[1973]:102). Her parentage, husband, and very existence are otherwise inferred from the rarity of the name Constant (particularly for a woman) and this Doane family’s bestowing it on a daughter in 1669/70 (Jonathan A. Shaw, “John Shaw of Plymouth Colony, Purchaser and Canal Builder,” NEHGR 151[1997]:427). Of the Snows’ twelve children, a daughter Constant would have been one of three living in 1651 whose names are not recorded (Robert Charles Anderson, _The Pilgrim Migration_ [Boston, 2004], 428–32). In 1973 (and presumably to this day), however, the Mayflower Society did not accept lines of descent through Daniel Doane’s first wife (White, “The Godfreys,” NEHGR 127:102). The Women of the Mayflower Project conducted a series of MtDNA tests leading to the conclusion that Doane’s first wife was not the daughter of Nicholas and Constance (Hopkins) Snow, but “the research of the lines was admittedly sketchy” (Muriel Curtis Cushing, “The Question of Constance Snow as the Daughter of Constance Hopkins and Nicholas Snow,” _Mayflower Quarterly_ 86[Fall 2019]:40). In sum, the identity of Daniel Doane's first wife is uncertain.

Lacking certainty that such a person as Constance Snow existed or married Daniel Doane, it would be highly speculative and logically inappropriate to attribute any vital-event data to her; all such information has therefore been removed above. While careful attempts at estimating vital-event dates for Daniel Doane's first wife (if she were listed only as such) are legitimate (see below), doing so for so-called Constance (Snow) Doane, whose very existence is uncertain, are not.

Daniel Doane's ninth child, generally accepted as born to his first wife (whoever she might have been), appears to have been Ruth, who married Nathaniel Mayo in 1710. The average age of a young woman in colonial New England marrying for the first time was about 20 and for a young man, 25. Based strictly on Ruth's marriage date, we would therefore estimate her birth year as "say 1690." But since Mayo was born in 1681, we might instead estimate Ruth's birth year as "say 1686" (about five years younger than her husband)—and her currently unidentified mother’s approximate date of death as “after say 1685."

• DOANE, Daniel
• b. 1636 Plymouth, Plymouth, Mass.
• d. 20 DEC 1712 Eastham, Barnstable, Mass.
• Parents:
• Father: DOANE, John
• Mother: PERKINS, Ann
• Family:
• Spouse:COLE, Hepzibah
• Family:
• Marriage: ABT 1664 Eastham, Barnstable, Mass.
• Spouse: SNOW, Constance [sic: disproved]
• b. 1646 Eastham, Barnstable, Mass.
• Children:
  • DOANE, Daniel
  • DOANE, Rebecca
  • DOANE, Joseph
  • DOANE, Constant
  • DOANE, Israel
  • DOANE, Ruth
  • DOANE, Nathaniel
  • DOANE, Abigail
• From: http://www.genealogyofnewengland.com/f_9.htm#25

  ---

• John Doane John Doane (c.1590 - 1685/6) He arrived in Plymouth Colony on an unknown ship sometime between 1628 and 1632. During his long life he is considered a person of note in Plymouth Colony serving in many government capacities associated with the colony government, such as government committees and deputy for Plymouth as well as Assistant Governor in 1632/33. He left government service for a time in the 1630s to serve as deacon in the Plymouth Church.[1]
• John Doane stated he was born in England and in his 1678 will he stated he was age about eighty-eight years of age making his birth year being about 1590. Nothing else is known of his English ancestry. There is no record of John Doane being in Leiden, Holland, although he was a Plymouth church deacon.[2]
• .... etc.
• John Doane's earliest known wife was called Ann in a 1648 deed, but in a later deed (of 1659) his wife was Lydia.[2]
• John Doane married:
• 1. Ann (poss. Perkins) by 1625 and had five children. She died on June 1, 1654 and was buried in Cove Burying Ground, Eastham.
• 2. Lydia ___ by April 1, 1659 and died between May 18, 1678 and December 23, 1681. Her burial place is unknown.
• Children of John and (probably) Ann Doane:
  • Lydia born about 1625 and died by June 1677. She married Samuel Hicks in Plymouth on September 11, 1645 and had two children. Their burial places are unknown.
  • Abigail was born about 1631 and died in Norwich, Connecticut on January 23, 1734/5. Her burial place is unknown. She married Samuel Lothrop as his 2nd wife in the early 1690s, but had no children. He died about 1700.
  • John was born about 1635 and died on March 15, 1707/8. He was buried in Cove Burying Ground, Eastham.
  • He married:
  • 1. Hannah Bangs in Eastham April 30, 1662 and had six children.
  • 2. Rebecca Pettee on January 14, 1684/5.
  • Daniel was born about 1637 and died in Eastham, Mass. On December 20, 1712. He was buried in Cove Burying Ground, Eastham.
  • He married:
  • 1. (poss. Constance Snow) by 1669 and had nine children.
  • 2. Hepsibah (Cole) Crispe after July 28, 1682 and had one daughter.[2]
  • Ephraim .... etc.
• From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_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 (1902)
• http://archive.org/details/doanefamily1deac00doan
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/n36/mode/1up
• Pg.1
• 1 JOHN1 DOANE came over from England and settled in Plymouth. He was the founder of the Doane family in America. Nothing is yet known of his history in England, but the same is true also of the greater number of the Pilgrims who repaired to these New England shores before the middle of the seventeenth century. .... etc
• Of John Doane's eraly life, of his parentage, the place of his nativity, the family name of his wife, the name of the vessel on which he came nothing whatever has yet been discovered. .... etc.
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/16/mode/1up
• .... His wife's name appears as Abigail. They were undoubtedly interred in the old cemetery at Eastham, the first burial ground of the town. .... etc.
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/18/mode/1up
• Children of Deacon John Doane:
  • 2 i LYDIA,2 b. ---- .
  • 3 ii ABIGAIL,2 b. Jan. 13, 1632.
  • 4 iii JOHN,2 b. about 1635.
  • 5 iv DANIEL,2 b. about 1636.
  • 6 v EPHRAIM,2 b --- .
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/19/mode/1up
• 2 LYDIA2 DOANE (John1) .... etc.
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/26/mode/1up
• 5 DANIEL2 DOANE (John1 ) was born probably at Plymouth, about 1636, and died at Eastham, Dec. 20, 1712, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was twice married. Nothing is known of his first wife. The marriage is not recorded on Eastham records. She doubtless was the mother of all the children, except the daughter Hepzibah. His second wife, whom he married after July 28, 1682, was Hepzibah Crisp, widow of George Crisp,(*) and daughter of Daniel and Mary Cole of Eastham. She was many years his junior, and survived him.
• .... Dea. Daniel Doane was buried in the old Town Cove burial ground where a small slatestone still legible marks his grave, and bears this inscription :
  • Here Lyes ye Body
  • of Deacon Daniel
  • Doane DecD DecR
  • ye 20th 1712
  • In The 76 Year
  • Of His Age.
• .... etc.
• http://archive.org/stream/doanefamily1deac00doan#page/30/mode/1up
• There is no list of Daniel Doane's children on the Eastham records, but the following one, made up from his will and other sources, is correct except perhaps as to the order of their births.
• Children of first marriage :
  • SON,3 b. ---- ; drowned in well, Sept., 1667.
  • 12 JOSEPH,3 b. about 1668.
  • CONSTANT3 (son), b. Mar. 7, 1669-70.
  • 13 ISRAEL,3 b. about 1672.
  • 14 DANIEL,3 b ---- .
  • 15 NATHANIEL,3 b ---- .
  • CONSTANT,3 b. ---- . m. Jan. 8, 1690, George Shaw of Eastham; d. at Eastham, May 2, 1720, s. of Jonathan Shaw. His will dated Feb. 28, 1718-19, was proved May 21, 1720. Ch., from Eastham records: 1. Elkanah, b. Oct. 7, 1691. 2. Rebecca, b. Mar. 10,1693; m. ---- Young. 3. George, b. Dec. 29, 1695. 4. Hannah, b. June 20, 1698. 5. John, b. Oct. 6, 1700. 6. Jonathan, b. Feb. 17, 1704.
  • REBECCA,3 b. ----. ; m. Benjamin,2 s. of William1 Myrick of Eastham.
  • ABIGAIL,3 b. ---- ; m. Mar. 17, 1702-3, Timothy Dimmock; settled in Mansfield, Conn. Ch., from Mansfield records: 1. Timothy, b. June 2, 1703. 2. John, b. Jan. 3, 1704-5. 3. Shubael, b. May 24, 1707. 4. Daniel, b. Jan. 28, 1709-10. 5. Israel, b. Dec. 22, 1712. 6. Ebenezer, b. Nov. 22, 1715.
  • RUTH,3 b. ---- ; d. before Mar. 15, 1722; m. July 13, 1710, Nathaniel4 Mayo, b. July 1681 (Nathaniel,3 Nathaniel,2 Rev. John1). Ch., from Eastham records: 1. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 29, 1712; m. Nov. 24, 1739, Judah Rogers. 2. Nathaniel, b. Aug. 4, 1714; m. 1st, Sept. 19, 1734, Hannah Horton ; m. 2nd, Jan. 24, 1748, Mary Randall. 3. Abigail, b. Sept. 24, 1716; d. Mar. 8, 1724. 4. Ruth, b. Nov. 17, 1719.
• Child of second marriage :
  • HEPZIBAH,3 b. ---- ; uum. Non compos mentis.
• 6 EPHRAIM2 DOANE (John1) .... etc.

  ---

"A Genealogical Controversy"
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Snow-1847

Constance Snow has been the object of several genealogical controversies. She is believed to have been the daughter of Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins Snow and to have been born shortly after their move from Plymouth to the new Cape Cod settlement of Eastham, Massachusetts in 1644/45. Records were not well kept in this new town as it was just being formed when Constance was born but the Snow genealogies say Nicholas & Constance Snow had a daughter who lived, born in 1645/1646, in Eastham, Barnstable County, Plymouth Colony (later Massachusetts).

Some genealogists say this daughter was named Hannah Snow; others say Constance Snow. No "Hannah Snow" has ever been proven to be a daughter of Nicholas and Constance Hopkins Snow either, although the name "Hannah" was common in the Snow family. In the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, "Mayflower Families Genealogies in Progress: Stephen Hopkins" Volume: pp 4-5, it states: "Josiah Paine, town clerk and historian of Harwich, wrote that Constance [Snow] had a daughter named for her mother who was the first wife of [Dr.] Daniel Doane of Eastham." This is the only contemporary source, cited by Governor Wm. Bradford in 1651, that confirms Constance's parentage and marriage.[1]

Equally controversial was Constance's marriage in 1666 when she was 20 or 21 years old. Josiah Paine, a Snow brother-in-law, and a Harwich town clerk and historian, kept a notebook in which he recorded Constance Snow's being Constance and Nicholas' daughter and her marriage to her family's neighbor, Daniel Doane, but no marriage certificate has been found in Eastham town records. The Barnstable County Courthouse, where other local records were kept, burned in 1827, limiting what remains available.

The couple had a son, Daniel, born in 1666 and then twins, born March 7, 1669, named "Constant" and "Constance," which reinforces the idea that their mother was Constance Snow but the Mayflower Society has never accepted the twins' descendants as Mayflower families due to lack of official marriage documentation. The same is true for the 5 other Doane children born before Daniel's second marriage (to Hepzibah Cole Crisp, married after 28 July 1682, when her first husband, George Crisp, died).[2]

It can be presumed that Constance Snow [Doane] died between the birth of her last child (Nathaniel Doane) in 1680 and Daniel Doane's re-marriage in July 1682. Again, no official death record has been found, in part due to the 1827 courthouse fire. Thus, at present, Constance Snow Doane's existence is confirmed only by her nephew Josiah Paine's contemporary but unofficial notation; this is not enough for the Mayflower Society but her 9 children and their descendants would say otherwise. She merits having them listed with her here but noted as "unproven" kin.

Note after Merge: On one profile, from "Kathys_Nelsons.ged," Constance's death was given as December 22, 1690. This may have been a typo for "December 22, 1680," a real possibility as her last child was born in 1680 and many women then died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. As no sources were given for this date, we have preferred using "before July 1682" as the given death date.[3]

References

1. WikiTree contributors, "Daniel Doane (abt.1636-bef.1712)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Doane-39 : accessed 12 December 2024). cites
   1. Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017). From Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975-2015. MFIP (2001) William Brewster > Patience Brewster, page 149 (Link by $ubscription.)
   2. The Doane Family Association, The Doane FaFamily Volume 2, (Doane Family Association, 1975) pg. 3. His marriages are not recorded in Eastham records. His first wife is believed by some genealogists to have been Constance Snow, daughter of Nicholas and Constance (Hopkins), but no documentary evidence has been found. Her name is unknown. The assumption is based solely upon the names of two of his children : Constant (a son) and Constance (a daughter). The Society of Mayflower Descendants has not accepted this assumption.
2. Cushing, Muriel Curtis. "The Question of Constance Snow as the Daughter of Constance Hopkins and Nicholas Snow." Mayflower Quarterly ( Vol 86, No 3) Fall 2019. < link > mtDNA testing of female line descendants of Constance (Hopkins) Snow found no relationship between the proven daughters and the wife of Daniel Doane.
3. WikiTree contributors, "Constance (Unknown) Doane (abt.1645-bef.1682)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-662675 : accessed 12 December 2024). cites
   1. "Does anyone know if GSMD [General Society of Mayflower Descendants} has budged re Constance (Snow) Doane?" < Wikitree discussion > "A couple of years ago, the GSMD tracked down matrilineal (all female line) descendants of Daniel Doane and his wife (said to be Constance Hopkins). They found and mtDNA tested two individuals. Neither one of them matched the known mtDNA signature of Constance (Hopkins) Snow, discovered by mtDNA testing matrilineal descendants of her other known daughters. Interestingly, the two individuals supposedly descended from Daniel Doane fell into different mtDNA haplogroups. Either one (or both) individuals' lines were wrong, or Daniel Doane was married more than once. In the end, this mtDNA testing likely puts the "final nail in the coffin" for Daniel to have married a daughter of Constance (Hopkins) Snow." (answered Dec 13, 2023)
   2. "Mayflower Families Genealogies in Progress: Stephen Hopkins" Volume: pp 4-5; Josiah Paine's contemporary notebook is in the Eastham Public Library. See:http://hartgen.renderplus.com/htm/hopkins_2.htm
   3. http://hartgen.renderplus.com/htm/hopkins_2.htm; cites "The Doane Family," III ed., 1976, Vol. 2.
   4. Note added by Chet Snow, September 23, 2104.
4. John D. Austin, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol 6, Stephen Hopkins, Plymouth, Mass.: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2001 [3rd edition], Pages 7-8.
5. Dunn Delong Family Tree at Rootsweb (Essentially unsourced - generic databases) (Link via Wayback Machine at Archive.org, capture date 16 Mar 2023.)
6. http://hartgen.renderplus.com/htm/hopkins_2.htm; cites "The Doane Family," III ed 1976, Vol. 2.
7. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. by Yates Publishing - Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. This unique collection of records was extracted from a variety of sources including family group sheets and electronic databases. Page: Source number: 1182.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: GAK. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=worldmarr_ga&h=1136193&ti=0&i... Birth date: 1646 - Birth place: MA - Marriage date: 1666...
8. "Descendants of William Cromartie and Ruhamah Doane and Related...," by Amanda Cook Gilbert, Volume 1, 2013 edition, pg. 21 says: "xiii. Constance Snow was born in 1638, married Daniel Doane, born about 1636." and on pg. 22 concludes: "William Bradford, writing in 1651, stated that Constance Hopkins [Snow] had 12 children, 'All of them Liviing.' Only 9 can be documented with existing records. Constance, wife of Daniel Doane, is quite probably one of the 'three missing children' but, unfortunately, there is no conclusive proof." See:
9. Doane Family Association of America, "Doane" Vol. II, pg. 2
10. General Society of Mayflower Descendants, "MFIP Stephen Hopkins" pp 4-5 states "Josiah Paine, town clerk and historian of Harwich, wrote that Nicholas and Constance had a daughter named for her mother who was first wife of Daniel Doane of Eastham".
11. A. A. Doane "Doane " Vol. I pg 26; "Dawes-Gates and Allied Families" 2:305
12. A.E. Stratton, "Plymouth Colony" (Ancestry Pub SLC UT 1986). See quote from "MFIP" above.
13. MAYFLOWER INCREASINGS by Susan Rosser not listed as a child spouse: Doane, Daniel (~1636 - 1712) - m. Bef 1666
14. The Chrisman Pedigree, website created by Lonnie Chrisman.
15. The Doane family : I. Deacon John Doane, of Plymouth, II. Doctor John Done, of Maryland, and their descendants : with notes upo. Ancestry.com
16. Family Data Collection - Marriages. Edmund West, compiler. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.
17. U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900. Yates Publishing. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.
18. American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI). Godfrey Memorial Library, comp. Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
19. http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/doane.html
20. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Snow-1847
21. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76351343 (has errors)
22. https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p5386.htm... (has errors)