The early history of Deacon John Doane, including his parentage and birth place, continues to be researched. It is believed that he was born about 1590 in England and came to the Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony

Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...

 in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 in 1630.

The following facts are known:

• In 1633 he was on the list of Freemen
• By 1632 - 1633 he began serving on the Plymouth General Court
  Plymouth General Court
  The Plymouth General Court was the original colonial legislature of the Plymouth colony from 1620 to 1692...
  
   and preferred to be a Deacon in the First Church of Plymouth rather than an Assistant to the Governor.
• In 1644 he was among those leading the enterprise of a new settlement in the Nauset (now Eastham area of Cape Cod).
• In 1663 he was appointed by the Court to solemnize marriages and administer oaths of witnesses.
• He was a deacon of the First Church and served the town as Selectman for many years.
• He also served as a Deputy to the Colony Court for Eastham.
• In his will dated May 18, 1678, he declares his age eighty-eight or thereabouts.
• He died February 21, 1685. He, along with his wife, was undoubtedly interred in the old cemetery at Eastham, the first burial ground of the town.

In 1869 the Doanes erected a memorial stone on the site of Deacon John's house in Eastham, Massachusetts

Eastham, Massachusetts

Eastham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 5,453 at the 2000 census....

. That site, overlooking Nauset Bay, is now a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. In 1906, a perpetual lot in the Old Town Cove burial ground, including the grave site of Deacon Daniel Doane, a son, was set aside. The following year a memorial stone with a bronze tablet honoring Deacon John Doane was erected. In 1994 a granite stone and bronze marker commemorating the 350th anniversary of the founding of Nauset was dedicated at the homesite.