Dr. John Dane     1614 - 1684

 

Born:   About 1614 in Little Berkhampstead, Herts, England

Died:   September 26/29, 1683/4 in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

 

 

Spouse:          Eleanor (Clark) Dane m. before 1638.

Children:         John Dane, Jr.

                        Mary Clark (Dane) Chandler  (m. William Chandler (Jr) of Andover on August 18 or 24, 1658 and had a daughter, Mary.  William was the son of William and Annis Chandler.  It is interesting to note that after William (Sr.) passed away, Annis re-married to Rev. Francis Dane, Dr. John Dane’s brother.  Mary died in Andover, Massachusetts.  (Much of this is outlined at Janice Brown’s site.)

                        Philemon Dane  (More Below)

                        Elizabeth (Dane) Johnson  (More below)

                        Sarah (Dane) Heald  (More below)

                        Rebecca (Dane) Hovey (m. James Hovey and had 6 children, all boys.)

 

2nd Spouse:   Alice (Dutch) Newman, a widow, who then after Dr. Dane’s death married Jeremiah Meachum of Salem.

 

Father’s name:          John Dane     of Little Berkhampstead, Herts, England                          

Mother’s name:         Frances (Bowyer) Dane of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertsfordshire, England.          

 

Siblings:         Elizabeth (Dane) Howe 

Mary Dane

Rev. Francis Dane

 

 

From The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Volume IV, for the year 1850, there is an article submitted by A. Hammett entitled Physicians of Ipswich.  It contains the following information regarding the Dane family:

  • John Dane is noted in some town records as John “Dean” or “Deanne”.
  • The father John Dane (Referred to as John Dane the Elder.) granted to his son, Dr. John Dane, “a house lot of one acre, lying in the street called the West End”  on February 9, 1639.
  • The brothers, Dr. John and Rev. Francis Dane appear on a list that gave an allowance to Major Denison for his “military helpfulness.”
  • Rev. Francis Dane then moved to Andover and became the Minister there.  I have more information regarding Rev. Francis Dane on the father’s page.
  • Upon his death, Dr. John Dane left an estate valued at 469pounds, 11s, 3d.  He addressed himself in the Will as “John Dane, Chirurgeon.”  However, the Clerk of the Court labeled it as “Doct. Deane’s Will.”  Dr. John Dane left to his son, John, a farm he had purchased from Mr. Richard Hubbard.
  • Philemon Dane preferred to use the spelling “Dean.”
  • He was also a practitioner of medicine.
  • Philemon married Mary Thompson October 7, 1685 who died shortly.
  • Philemon remarried to Ruth Converse December 25, 1690.  With her he had 3 children, Ruth and twins Philemon (Jr.) and Edmund. 
  • Dr. Philemon Dean’s gravestone reads:

Here Lies Y Body Of

Docr Philemon Deane

Who Died October Y

18th, 1760 Aged 70 Years

O Lord by Sad & Awful Stroakes

Of Mans Mortality

O Let Us All Be Put In Mind

That We Are Born To Dye

Grave Saint Behind That Cannot Find

Thy Old Love Night Nor Morn

Pray Look Above For Thers Your Love

Singing With Y First Born

 

Dr. John Dane emigrated from England in 1635, having left before his parents and the remainder of the family.  Hi reasons were outlined in the narrative he wrote (See below) and included issues of abuse from his father.  He first lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts, then moved to Ipswich.

Both Jonathon Dane Sr (subject of this page) and his son Jonathon Dane Jr are contained in: List of Men With Commonage Rights, 1678.  Extracted from Materials for the History of Ipswich, New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol 7, January 1853, pg 77.  [Transcribed by Jane Devlin]  Note that John Dane Sr’s name is misspelled as ‘Diene’.

Dr. John Dane wrote a small book in 1682 titled A Declaration of Remarkable Providences in the Course of My Life.  Added to this book is a pedigree of the Dane family and a few notes.  Google Books appears to have gotten it from a copy donated to the Harvard College Library in 1854 by descendent John Dane (IV).  The work can also be found under the title A Devil to Tempt and a Corrupt Heart to Deceive and is alternately known as John Dane Battles Life’s Temptations.  The work essentially is a biographical outline of John Dane’s life in England and his struggles to avoid trouble when confronted with child abuse from his father and temptations to steal and indulge in sex.  His eventual move to Massachusetts is mentioned with his desires to worship and live under a Master Norton which is most likely a reference to the Rev. John Norton.

 

The Pedigree mentioned above appears to be accurate, though incomplete.  It starts with the Dr. John Dane’s father and works through the next five generations.  In that fifth generation, Daniel Dane and his wife Abigail are identified as being the parents of the Hon. Nathan Dane who made generous donations to Harvard’s School of Law, This is probably the connection and the reason why the book had been donated to Harvard’s library.  Nathan Dane also authored the 9 volume American Law, played a significant role in the Ordinance of 1787 which led the purchase of territory now know as Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and was earnestly involved in temperance movements.  My heritage flowed through a different branch of the Dane family, namely John Dane, Jr. to Nathaniel to Israel Dane.  This pedigree offers no new information to this line.   However, it is interesting that my ancestors in Nova Scotia also founded and preached temperance too.  I believe that this reinforces the link between the Dane families of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  For more information regarding Nathan Dane, please visit the Nathan Dane Archival Collaborative.

 

The following regarding Dr. John Dane’s daughter comes from Steve Condarcure’s New England Genealogy: http://www.genealogyofnewengland.com/f_194.htm#55

Dane, Elizabeth
b. 1646 Andover, Mass.
Family:

Marriage: 5 NOV 1661
Spouse: Johnson, Stephen
b. 1640 Ipswich, Mass.
d. 30 MAR 1690 Andover, Mass.
Parents:

Father: JOHNSON, John
Mother: JOHNSON, Susanna

Children:

JOHNSON, Francis
JOHNSON, Benjamin
b. 12 AUG 1677 Andover, Mass.
JOHNSON, Joseph
b. 12 AUG 1677 Andover, Mass.
JOHNSON, Stephen
JOHNSON, Abigail

The genealogy provided after the sermon at the funeral of Mr. Francis Dane, a 7th generation grandson of John Dane says that Elizabeth Dane married a Reginald Foster, Jr.  This second marriage is also support in the George Stayley Brown book regarding Yarmouth Genealogies.

 

Daughter Sarah Dane was born in 1645 in Ipswich, MA and died December 28, 1701 in Ipswich, MA.  Sarah Dane 1st married John Heald, June 10, 1661 in Concord, Massachusetts.  Secondly married Daniel Warner, Jr., born Abt. 1640; died November 24, 1696 in Pine Swamp, Ipswich, MA. He was the son of Daniel Warner, sr. and Elizabeth Denne. Daniel married Sarah on September 23, 1668 in Ipswich, Essex, MA and they had two children, Daniel Warner III and Mercy Warner, who married Israel Howe, grandson of Dr. John Dane’s sister Elizabeth and her husband James Howe. 

Details regarding the Dane family are supported by the book Early Inhabitants of Ipswich, Mass., by Abraham Hammatt, ca. 1880.

I’ve accidentally discovered that the wills of Thomas and Margaret Boardman where witnessed by John Dane in May of 1673.

 

John Dane is mentioned in Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the State of Massachusetts (Prepared by William Richard Cutter, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., New York, 1910).  It describes a 1677 sale of Ipswich property by James Hovey to John Dane.  It also says that James Hovey had married John Dane’s daughter in 1670.

                       

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