The story of the Doan Gang is a reminder that not every American colonial was fighting for independence during the American Revolution.
"Museum Pieces" is a diary series that explores the history behind some of the most interesting museum exhibits and historical places.
In the USA today, our national origin story has become a self-serving legend which has grown to encompass a political and social outlook that still influences our present-day politics. According to this myth, the whole of the American colonial population, burdened with high taxes imposed upon them by an autocratic monarchy headed by King George III, rose up against their oppressors to seek independence and, virtually single-handedly against tremendous odds, managed to beat the best troops that the British Empire could muster and win their fight for freedom and democracy.
The reality is very different. American colonists were themselves deeply divided, with never any more than one-third of the population supporting the rebels, and at least another one-third remaining Loyalist and supporting the British Crown (they were called “Tories” by the colonial rebels)—giving the American Revolution the character of a civil war. The American General Horatio Gates had a brother-in-law serving as a British officer; even that most ardent of Patriots, Benjamin Franklin, had a son who was a devoted Loyalist. In many battles, units of local militia were serving on both sides, and neighbor was shooting at neighbor. The Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina, the turning point for the Revolution in the southern colonies, was fought entirely by Americans against Americans—there was only one British soldier on the entire battlefield. With the hindsight of victory, we refer to those who supported the rebellion as “Patriots”, but in fact both sides viewed themselves as patriotic and devoted, and viewed the other side as disloyal and treacherous. Other people, though, known as the “Disaffected”, just wanted the fighting to stop, and many people switched from one side to the other and back again, according to whomever was winning at the time.
In December 1776, the American Revolution was in serious trouble. The colonial troops under General George Washington had been forced to withdraw from New York City after a series of defeats. To raise the spirits of his broken troops and keep the rebellion alive, Washington was planning a daring strike across the Delaware River against the Hessians at Trenton.
But he faced a problem. The area of Pennsylvania where he had camped, just north of Philadelphia, was inhabited mostly by Quakers who disavowed war and violence and who refused to support the Revolution or the Continental Congress government. After the Revolution broke out, Pennsylvania deposed its Royal Governor and formed a Supreme Executive Council under Benjamin Franklin which assumed power in the colony. The Council, in its role as de facto government, provided troops to the Continental Army as well as local militia to defend against British attacks, imposed a series of taxes on the colony’s inhabitants, and forced every citizen to sign an oath of loyalty to the Continental Congress and to the “United States”. Those Tories or Disaffecteds who evaded military service or who refused to pay the tax levy to the rebel government were listed as “traitors”, their property was confiscated, and they were subject to arrest and imprisonment. Prominent rebels formed local “Committees of Public Safety” to root out Loyalists, Disaffected neutrals, and anyone else who they deemed insufficiently enthusiastic in their support of independence. There had already been conflict, when, in October 1775, a group of Loyalists (including several people who would later become part of the Doan Gang) were entangled in a fist-fight with a unit of colonial militia at a tavern in Newtown Township, and a 75-year old Tory named William Tomlinson was severely beaten with clubs.
As a result, Bucks County was a hotbed of Loyalists, many of whom had organized themselves into militia units which were prepared to fight on the side of the British Army. Armed with hunting muskets and locally-made swords, they presented a serious threat to Washington’s rear security. In a letter to the Continental Congress, Washington argued that all of those local residents who were not full supporters of the colonial cause should be disarmed, forcibly if necessary. “If they will not use them for us, there is the greatest reason to apprehend they will against us . . . . Even supposing they claim the right of remaining neutral, in my opinion we ought not to hesitate a moment in taking their arms.”
One of the families that lived in the town of Plumstead was the Doans, a large clan that included brothers, cousins and other relatives under the patriarch Joseph Doan Sr. As Quakers, they were opposed to the war, and as loyal subjects of the British Crown they also refused to pay taxes to the rebels. And that brought them into direct conflict with the colonial government.
It’s not entirely clear what initially provoked the family into action, and much of the true story of the Doan Gang has probably been lost in a fog of myth and folklore. Doan family tradition, recorded decades later, says that the colonial government had declared a number of people in the Doan family to be “traitors”, and the local Agent of Forfeited Estates was sent, with a military guard, to seize their properties. But Pennsylvania state records show that Joseph Doan’s house was not confiscated (for nonpayment of taxes) until 1782, years after the Doan Gang went into action. There is a record in 1778 of the colonials confiscating Moses Doan’s horse, but this too was some time after the Gang had presumably been formed.
Whatever the reason, though, members of the extended Doan family including five of Joseph Sr’s sons (Moses, Aaron, Levy, Mahlon, and Joseph Jr) turned actively against the Revolution and began to support the Royalist side. With the British occupying Philadelphia, there was already a thriving Tory network of underground Loyalists who served as spies, couriers and informers for the Crown and who helped captured British soldiers to escape the American POW camps and return to service. These Loyalists were gathering in secret in the barn of Joseph Thomlinson in nearby Upper Makefield Township to exchange information. And with Washington’s army camped nearby, they were in a position to be extremely useful to the British.
According to local legend, it was the spy network led by Moses Doan who informed British General William Howe in August 1776 that the colonials had neglected to leave a defensive force at Jamaica Pass in New York, allowing Howe to outmaneuver Washington and defeat the Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island, forcing the rebels to abandon New York City. Then in December 1776, as Washington was moving his troops for his planned raid on Trenton, it was, the story goes, Moses Doan who provided a note informing the Hessian commander Colonel Johann Rahl of Washington’s approach. Unfortunately for Rahl, he never read the note, and Washington was able to cross the Delaware River undetected and attack by surprise. It is not definitively established, however, that either of these were actually the work of the Doan network.
One of the first actions that can be definitively attributed to the guerrilla group was the January 1778 raid on the Bird in Hand Tavern in Bucks County, which was serving as a storage place for cloth that was intended for Continental Army uniforms. A small group of Loyalists led by Joseph Thomlinson Jr forced their way in and stole all the supplies.
For the most part, the Doan guerrillas busied themselves with small hit and run raids to steal horses for the British Army, to help stragglers and escaped POWs return to British lines, and to gather and pass on intelligence information. But in October 1781, three days after the British Army surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, members of the Gang launched a daring operation when they raided the Newtown Township home of Bucks County Treasurer John Hart, who collected the tax funds for the colonial government. An armed party of guerrillas smashed their way into the house and kept Hart’s entire family at bay while they looted as much of the rebel money as they could carry, making off with over one thousand pounds sterling (almost a quarter of a million in today’s dollars). The stolen money was used to finance the Tory resistance network, which by this time had grown to at least 60 members.
Not surprisingly, the Doans attracted the attention of the colonial authorities, who put out a steady stream of pamphlets and broadsides declaring the “Doan Gang” to be traitors and criminals, with a price of one hundred pounds sterling on their heads. To evade the rebels, Gang members took to hiding out in several of the limestone caves which honeycombed the surrounding country. They also sheltered in safehouses provided by local sympathizers.
They continued to target colonial tax collectors, robbing at least ten Pennsylvania treasurers over the next two years. Today, local legend has it that a significant portion of these gold and silver coins were hidden away by the Doans in some of the local caves, waiting to be found.
In August 1783 a party of fourteen local militia troops led by Colonel William Hart tracked several of the Tories to a remote farmstead on the Tohickon Creek known as “Halsey’s Cabin”. When they arrived, they found Moses, Levy and Abraham Doan there, and a wild gunfight broke out. Levy and Abraham managed to escape into the woods, but Moses was fatally shot. One of the militiamen, Major William Kennedy, was wounded and died three days later. The reward offered for the capture of Gang members was now increased to three hundred pounds sterling.
By the end of that year, however, most of the known Tory resisters had been captured, including Abraham and Levy. Many of the Gang members were kept in the local jail for a time. Some of them were branded with the letter “T” (for “Thief”). Those that remained free left Bucks County, and many of them, unwilling to live under rebel rule, moved to British Canada at the end of the war.
Abraham and Levy Doan were both charged under English common law with the offense of “outlawry”. Since it was considered that “outlaws” had by their actions placed themselves outside of the protection of civilized society, they were denied any legal rights, including the right to a trial, and were often simply summarily executed. Since Abraham and Levy Doan were considered to be ringleaders, they were publicly hanged in Philadelphia in September 1788. They remain the only two people ever executed in the United States for “outlawry”. They were buried just outside of the local Quaker cemetery, since the Friends would not bury “criminals” on their grounds.
Aaron Doan was also scheduled to be hanged, but he was given a reprieve by Benjamin Franklin on condition that he leave the United States and never return. He moved to Canada.
Today the Mercer Museum in Doylestown PA has an exhibit of artifacts which illustrate the history of the Doan Gang, and explores the question of whether the Doans were traitors and criminals, or whether they were themselves loyal patriots to their own country who happened to pick the losing side.
Some photos from a visit.