The Doan Gang: Revolutionary War Outlaws

During the Revolutionary War, the Doan family of Plumstead Township became Pennsylvania's most wanted outlaws. They spied for the British, sold stolen horses to the Crown, and robbed the county treasury in seventeen eighty-one. By seventeen eighty-three, the state government had officially declared six Doan family members outlaws for a catalog of robberies, burglaries, and felonies.

The gang's end came in pieces. Leader Moses Doan was killed in a shoot-out. Abraham and Levi were captured and hanged.

Joseph Junior escaped to Canada. Aaron was pardoned on the condition that he leave America for good. Mahlon broke out of jail and slipped away to New York.

Three of them are buried not far from here, in the countryside of Bucks County that the family once terrorized in the name of the British cause.