On a beautiful fall day in eastern Connecticut, Doane family members gathered at the Old Norwich Burial Ground to see the newly restored gravestone of Abigail (Doane) Lothrop. This is due to the efforts of James Thomas Doane and Elizabeth Perry.
James Thomas Doane at the headstone and footstone of Abigail Lothrop's grave.
Abigail was the daughter of John Done and his wife of unknown name. Abigail Doane was more than likely the first of the surname born in the Western Hemisphere.
The stone testifies that this woman of 104 years of life was born at Plymouth in 1631. It is a record, though not contemporary, that her parents came to Plymouth Colony by that year.
Abigail Doane more than likely lived the first fifty four years of her life in the household of her father. Sometime before 1681 John Done conveys his dwelling house and fourteen acres to Abigail Doane "for that love and natural affection that I bear to my daughter". Deacon John Done died at Eastham on 21 February 1685. What happened in the life of Abigail Doane between the death of her father and 1690 is unknown. At some point during that time period she was introduced to Samuel Lothrop of Norwich, CT, for in 1690, at the age of about 59 years, she married him. Why would the widower, Samuel Lothrop, aged about 67 years, marry a spinster from Eastham in far off Cape Cod?
The gravestone with broken headstone before it was repaired. The grave has been identified as the work of Obadiah Wheeler. He has been called by some as one of the best stone carvers of the interior of eastern Connecticut.
The headstone showing the inscription and the repair. (Click here to see inscription.)