A Life Story Told in Verse and Prose
Johne Dane: 1612-1684 (Maternal 8th Great-Grandfather)
I have been fascinated for years by the commonplace book of
Reverend Francis Dane, one of my 8th great grandfathers. Commonplace
books were widely used in the 17th century by scholars, writers, and educated
people as a tool for reading, learning, and remembering information. They often
contained quotations, passages copied from books and other written material,
personal observations, and drafts of such things as sermons. I discovered that
Francis was not the only Dane brother to use a commonplace book. John Dane,
another of my 8th Great-Grandfathers, wrote his own commonplace book
in the late 1600s. Miraculously, both these books were preserved by Dane family
members over the centuries. Both have been photographed and digitally uploaded
by American Ancestors, making them available online for all modern-day researchers.
John Dane’s commonplace book is a wonderful primary source that I would love to
study and better understand.
To provide some background biographical information, John
Dane was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1612, the son of John Dane and his
wife Frances Bowyer Dane. He left England as part of the Puritan migration, probably
arriving in the Massachusetts colony around 1635, although some sources list a
date as late as 1638. His widowed father and brother Francis followed him to
the colony around 1636. John settled in Ipswich, while his father settled in
Roxbury and Francis Dane in Andover.
John Dane married Eleanor Clark around 1637. They had six
children: sons John and Philemon, and daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Priscilla
Rebecca and Sarah. The Commonplace Book was written in 1682, two years before
John Dane’s death, as a form of personal history for his children.
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| Cover of John Dane's Commonplace Book |
American Ancestors’ Digital Library and Archives describes
John Dane’s commonplace book as follows:
“Vellum bound book with a lappet. Contains two
narratives, one in rhyme and one in prose, some religious meditations, and
advice to the author's children in rhyme. The record contains some notes on
sermons by Mr. Dennison, Mr. Hubbard, and Mr. Gerrish. There is also some short
hand. The narratives provide the author's recollections of his childhood in
England, his life as a taylor's apprentice while a young man in Hereford
(England), settling in New England, and life in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
The book opens with a sort of introductory page that sets
out what he will be including in the book. It reads:
“By John Dane, senner, of Ipshwitch,
And Chiriergen, in the yer of our
Lord, 1682;
Containing sum poems in waie of
Preparation for death, besides the
obsaruaton
Of seauarall prouedensis in the
Cose of
His lyfe, and aded seaueral
meditations.
He that liues out full seauenty
years,
And has fullfild that number,
His after time that doth apere
Is of grefe and great wonder.
(psalms the 90:10)”
The book has 265 pages, which are quite small, the book
being only fifteen centimeters or about six inches tall and three and a half
inches wide. The cover has his signature on it.
Here is a page of the “shorthand” referenced in the
description above. It looks more like a code than shorthand, but whatever John
Dane called it, he was obviously using it to prevent anyone from reading what
he had written. I wonder what this four-page-long passage contained.
 |
| "Shorthand" section of the commonplace book |
The “two narratives” are brief memoirs of his life. He
described his early years as ones of rebellion and foolish behavior. He had a
sort of epiphany when he experienced a severe reaction to a bee sting. He was
forced to consult a chiriergen (a seventeenth century term for a surgeon) for
help with the swelling in his hand. The man made an impression on him, and
after a few more adventures, he returned home to his parents and became a
dutiful son and good Puritan. He then wrote about his decision to emigrate to
the colonies, and his struggles upon arrival. He even reached such a point of
despair that he considered taking his own life. But he persisted, and felt that
the “special hand of God” had helped him. He concluded,
“Thus God hath all along preserved and kept me all my
days. Although I have many times lost His special presence, yet he hath
returned to me in mercy again...
Oh, loving relations, have care of quenching such notions
of God’s spirit, lest you bring sorrow and affliction onto your heads and
hearts, as many others have done, to their great grief and sorrow; and I can
speak it, to the grief of my soul, by woeful experience.”
Portion of Dane's Poetry Narrative
It appears John Dane hoped his narratives would help to
guide his descendants in their own lives.
While John Dane began his work life as a tailor (he spells
it taylor) in England, he became a chiriergen in the colonies. In the 1828
Webster’s Dictionary, Noah Webster defined the word, which he spelled chiurgeon,
as “A surgeon; one whose profession is to heal diseases by manual operations,
instruments or external applications.” Did John Dane’s experience with the
chiriergen in England following his bee sting spur his career change? One of
his sons, Dr. Philemon Dane, received medical training and followed his father
into the practice of medicine.
The Commonplace book apparently was inherited by John Dane’s daughter Sarah, who married Daniel Warner. She gave the book to her grandson, Philemon Warner Jr. The inside cover was inscribed by Philemon as follows: "Philemon Warner, Junr, his book, given him by his grandmother Warner, Janry 20th, 1741.” The memoir portion of the book was eventually transcribed and published in 1854 as A Declaration of Remarkable Providences in the Course of My Life by John Dane of Ipswich 1682.
I have read portions of John Dane’s
verse and prose narratives. I would like to read the other sections of the commonplace
book, and examine the narratives with more care. There are so many wonderful
details about John Dane’s life in this handwritten account that can help me better
understand life in the seventeenth century and Puritan culture and beliefs.
Sources:
https://digital.americanancestors.org/digital/collection/p15869coll26
A Declaration of Remarkable Providences in the Course of
My Life by John Dane of Ipswich 1682 to which is added a pedigree of the Dane
family, and a few notes by a member of the New England historical-genealogical
society. Prepared for the NEHG Register. Boston. Samuel G. Drake. 1854.
Beyond Narrative: the Conversion Plot of John Dane’s A Declaration
of Remarkable Providences. Neuman, Meredith Marie. Clark University. Early
American Literature. Vol. 40, No. 2 (2005), pp. 251-277. University of
North Carolina Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25057399
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