William Croswell Doane

William Croswell Doane (March 2, 1832, in Boston – May 17, 1913, in New York City ) was the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the Northeastern United States. He was bishop from 1869 until his death in 1913.

Doane served about 60 years in ordained ministry, a huge span for those times. As bishop, he managed the construction of the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, the first Episcopal cathedral (the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate) in the United States. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Doane is probably best known today for his Anglican hymn, "Ancient of Days".

Early life Doane was born in Boston, and named for his father's best friend, the Rev. William Croswell.

Within a year, his father was elected second Bishop of New Jersey (since the American Revolutionary War and establishment of the American Episcopal Church). After college, Doane became an Episcopal priest. Like his father, he became involved in the Oxford Movement, which sought to restore richness of practice to the liturgy.

Doane was called to Albany, New York in 1867 to serve "the venerable parish of St. Peter's, Albany." Doane liked Gothic architecture for Episcopal churches for its spiritual quality. Doane and the congregation planned a cathedral complex, to include convent, cloister, hospital and school. He established the girls' school in 1870, and the convent and hospital in 1874. Much of the building was paid for in a gift by his friend, J. Pierpont Morgan. In 1892, he addressed the General Convention in Baltimore, urging the necessity of Christian education.

In keeping with his plans for the cathedral and Oxford Movement traditions, Doane established an ambitious music program at the cathedral. In the late 19th century, he founded a boy's choir school (now defunct) and the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys.

Doane was active in speaking out against the women's suffrage movement, which he opposed on the grounds that God had given men dominion over women and that women's 'natural' place was in the home caring for their children. He wrote that "an enlarged unqualified suffrage... [is] an aggravated misery [and a] threatening danger". So influential were his views that suffragist Ellen Battelle Dietrick's last book, Women in the Early Christian Ministry (1897)—in which she offered a refutation of Christian teachings that relegated women to second-class status—was subtitled "A Reply to Bishop Doane, and Others".

Doane died at the age of 81 in New York City in 1913, while traveling. His Coadjutor, Richard Henry Nelson, succeeded to the position of bishop of Albany.