In the fall of 1770, Moses Doan left his home in anger after an argument with his father Joseph Sr. A few days later he saved the family of the young girl he loved from an Indian attack, but his subsequent declaration of love for her was rebuffed. Around this time he joined a small band of local Indians of the Wolf clan of the
Lenni Lenape tribe. It is believed that he stayed with them for several months, hunting and engaging in feats of strength with them which he always won. In 1774, Moses enlisted his brothers Aaron, Levi, Mahlon, and Joseph as well as his cousin Abraham to his gang. A handwritten note by Etta Holloway, great-granddaughter of Joseph Doan, tells the story of the outlaws this way: They were all of the Quaker faith and did not believe in war. The new government levied a tax upon Joseph, Sr., the father of the Tory Doan boys, confiscated his farm, threw his wife, 3 daughters and youngest son off of the land, jailed Joseph Sr. for non payment of taxes and branded him on his hand as a criminal. This was the given reason for the start of the notorious group known as the Tory Doans. However, the Pennsylvania Archives date the forfeiture of Joseph Doan's home as August 13, 1782, after the conclusion of the Revolution, and 10 months after the Doan gang robbed the treasury at Newtown. In July 1776, Moses and Levi met with British General
William Howe and offered themselves as spies. Moses earned the nickname "Eagle Spy". By this time most able-bodied men had marched off to war, leaving the area unprotected. On August 27, 1776, Moses Doan informed General Howe of the unprotected
Jamaica Pass, helping Howe defeat
George Washington's army at the
Battle of Long Island. On December 25, 1776, Moses may have delivered this note to Colonel
Johann Rahl's headquarters: "Washington is coming on you down the river, he will be here afore long. Doan". Colonel Rahl never read the note, however, and Washington kept the element of surprise. He was thus able to cross the
Delaware River with the
Continental Army and handily win the pivotal
Battle of Trenton. On June 15, 1778, Joseph Doan, Sr. was listed as a traitor (and later relisted on November 28, 1783), along with 200 other men. Aaron Doan, Mahlon Doan, and Moses Doan were listed as traitors on a July 30, 1778 supplemental list. On June 7, 1780, Abraham Doan killed a woman in her home with her nine fearful children huddled around her. While this allegation is made in several sources, there is no confirmation of the event, and in fact, the woman's husband had refuted it. However, a 1788 broadside about Abraham and Levi Doan did state that a victim (a French gentleman who owned a store on the Susquehanna) died of wounds incurred from the gang. The gang is documented in the Pennsylvania state historical archives with threatening to kill collectors. On October 22, 1781, three days after
Cornwallis surrendered at
Yorktown, the Doan gang robbed the Bucks County Treasury in
Newtown of 1,307
pounds sterling, equal to £ today. The monies were never recovered. The next year, the Doan gang is documented to have robbed nine other collectors. In June 1783, Moses Doan and Abraham Doan and others robbed "several" Bucks County tax collectors in their homes. A 100-pound reward was offered for their apprehension. On July 26, 1783, Moses Doan, Abraham Doan, Levi Doan, Mahlon Doan, and others robbed two Bucks county tax collectors and four citizens at night in their homes. The 100-pound reward, equal to £ today, was reiterated. A note was found in Moses Doan's pocket threatening the murder of the
United States Speaker of the House Muhlenberg if Joseph Doan was not released from the Philadelphia prison. On May 17, 1787, Aaron Doan, who had been sentenced to hang for outlawry, was pardoned on the condition he leave America and never return. On September 24, 1788, Levi Doan and his cousin Abraham Doan confessed to aiding the British and were hanged in Philadelphia. Moses Doan's gravestone was moved by a farmer and currently lies in a hedgerow in Plumstead Township, badly weathered by the elements. The Friends Meeting House's cemetery in
Plumsteadville is protected by a fieldstone wall that runs around its perimeter. Levi and Abraham Doan were buried just outside this wall because the pacifist Quakers refused to bury militants within their graveyard (a veteran of the Civil War is likewise buried outside the graveyard perimeter). The graves are adorned with their original native brownstone headstones which bear no inscriptions, following the Quaker practice at the time of their death, as well as newer headstones that identify them as outlaws. ==The Doan myth==