The DuBois Family and Their Descendants

Shield of the DuBois Family

In Florida, there is a chapter of the Huguenot Society, the Louis DuBois Chapter, named for our ancestor. Louis DuBois was the immigrant to Nieuw Netherlands whose ancestors and descendants are found in every state and every strata of America. Garret A Hobart, Vice President under William McKinley during his first term, General George S. Patton, Sam Walton, Marlon Brando, and Joan Crawford all count Louis DuBois as an ancestor. Louis DuBois's children enter the Brown Family through Elizabeth Ferree Gibboney.

The French name du Bois literally means 'from the woods.' The origins of the family lie in Ancient Gaul — Roman France. According to one genealogist, Anna Louise Thompson of Clinton, Iowa, the duBois line springs from Guelph, Prince of Scyrri in 476 AD. Fourteen generations later, we find Azo, Marquis of Liguria in 1030 AD who married Marie of the House of Este. The Estes trace their line to Lombardy, circa 500 BC. After a brief list of the Middle Ages most memorable monarchs, we arrive at,

Madame Claude de Lannoy, married Charles du Bois, Seigneur des Querder, who was a descendant of MacQuaire du Bois, Count de Roussey, A.D. 1110.

Seven more generations of du Bois pass,

I. Gen.: Eustache, Seigneur des Querder and de Fiennes, married first, Gille de Renel; married second, Jeanne de St. Ol.

II. Gen.: Gueslain des Fiennes, Count de Clarmont, married Jeanne de Longueville.

III. Gen.: Marc de Fiennes, Seigneur des Querder, married Madelaine d'Ognies.

IV. Gen.: Maxamillien de Fiennes, Seigneur des Querder, married Catherine Cecil Germand.

V. Gen.: Maximillien des Fiennes, married Louise Charlotte d'Etamps.

VI. Gen.: Charles Maximillien des Fiennes married Henrietta de Reignier de Boisleau.

VII. Gen.: Chretien Maxamillien des Fiennes, Seigneur de Beaufermez and de Bource, married ________ ?

The record of the erasure of Chretien's marriage and family, that is, the Chretien known to have been the father of Louis du Bois, makes a break in Louis' line of descent. The official record was obviously destroyed because of his Protestantism, and to prevent him--or any of his descendants--from ever after establishing a claim to the title and estates. We are informed that there were not two branches after the resumption of the title of Marquis des Fiennes. We are also advised that Louis was a second son; and that the title and arms of the des Fiennes became extinct with the death of the Marchioness de Poyanne, in 1761.

VIII. Gen.: Louis du Bois de Fiennes, born October 10, 1626, in La Basse, near Lille, in the province of Artois, France, married, October 10, 1655, at Mannheim, in the Lower Palatinate of Germany, to Catherine Blanchan, daughter of Mathese and Madelaine [Jorisse] Blanchan, who were co-refugees with the du Bois from French Flanders to Wicres, Artois, France.1 Louis du Bois died 1695. The du Bois des Fiennes appear to have been of military stock, and to have furnished France with some able soldiers.

 

Sketch of well dressed Huguenots leaving Church to a world of debauchery and petilence in London.

Enter the Reformation. The Reformation began in Germany, but religious fervor spread throughout Europe at a fiery pace. Protestantism knew no boundary, whether geographical or by class, and Louis du Bois' father became Protestant. This so angered the French monarchy that Cardinal Mazaran and Marshall Turenne, henchmen of Louis XIV, removed Louis du Bois and his ancestors from the official roles of nobility. Louis was stripped of his title and lands and sought refuge in Flanders. In fact, when Louis and his wife arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam, he was refered to as Louis 'the Walloon,' in reference to his Flemish exile. Louis then moved to Mannheim, Germany, from his Flemish exile.

 

Historical Map of Long Island

Louis arrived at Nieuw Amsterdam from Mannheim, Rheinlan-Pfalz (Germany) aboard the Saint Jean Baptiste which sailed from Amsterdam on May 9, 1661 and arrived on August 6, 1661 under the command of Captain Jan Bergen. Louis and his family settled in at Wiltwyck, or present day Kngston, New York. Louis would go on to be a founding father of the town of New Paltz as the Huguenots sought their own settlement in 1678 as well as the Reformed Church which Louis co-founded in 1685. Louis and his wife Catherine brought their third son for baptism at Wiltwyck in 1661.

Before long, Louis became one of the original 12 land patentees near Hurley, New York, somewhat distant up the Hudson River in the Catskills, for those days, and roughly across from present day Poughkeepsie. The Dutch settlement of Nieuw Dorp was used as a staging point for the Huguenots to begin their own settlement. On June 7, 1663, the warlike Munsee Indians attacked and razed Nieuw Dorp and it remained uninhabitated until acquired by the British on September 6, 1664, and renamed Hurley. The Indian raid on Nieuw Dorp was tragic for all, fatal to some, but from it comes a story of epic heroism. Louis' wife and children, along with the family of Jan Joosten van Metern were taken captive by the Munsee tribe of Esopus Indians.

The Dutch responded the next day with Captain Martin Krieger, a local leader and soldier well known in the Delaware, and who built the first tavern on Broadway, later known as Atlantic Gardens, that was used extensivly during the pre-Revolution by Patriots. Krieger and Louis DuBois headed up an expedition to retrieve the hostages and 'chastise the Indians.' After three months, they finally found the Indian encampment on September 3, 1663, defeated the Indians, and restored the families.

A description of the captivity comes from Professor Obenchain of Ogden College, Bowling Green, Kentucky,

About ten weeks after the capture the Indians decided to celibrate their escape from pursuit by burning one of their captives. For their victim, they selected Catharine d Bois and her baby, Sara, who afterward married Joost Janse Van Veteren [sic]. A cubical pile of logs was arranged and the mother and child were placed upon it; when the Indians were about to apply the torch, Catharine began to sing a Huguenot hymn [Psalm 137] she had learned in earlier days in France. The Indians withheld the fire and listened. When she finished they demanded another song and then another. Before the last hymn was finished Dutch Soldiers arrived, the captives were all rescued and the Indians terribly punished.

Louis and Catherine brought two children across the Atlantic. The oldest was Abraham, who married Margaret Deyo, daughter of one of the patentees of New Paltz.

 

The DuBois House in New Paltz, New York

As for Abraham and Margaret Deyo, Ralph Le Fevre, author of The History of New Paltz, writes,

In the old street in our village the Deyo house, the DuBois house and the houses of the two Hasbrouck brothers came down in the same family for nearly two hundred years.

And later,

Probably the last of the Patentees to cross the ocean were Christian Deyo and his son, Pierre. Pierre's wife, Agatha Nickol, and their child came with them; likewise his three ummarried sisters, Maria, Elizabeth and Margaret, who afterwards became the wives respectively of Abraham Hasbrouck, Simon Le Fever and Abraham DuBois.

We also find the original patent of Peter Deyo. Please note the original spelling has been preserved,

Kingestowne, 26th April, 1681.

I under written Peter dolliaw of ye New False doe owne to

stand indebted unto mee Thomas Dellavoll ye sum of fifty two

Sch. wheatte, wch I doe oblige my self to pay this next year

now cominge on, whereunto I have sett my hand to be de-

livered at ye water syde. Pierre doyo.

Note the name Deyo is spelled doyo. In other documents, it is spelled doioie in the feminine and doyau in the masculine. In a further note on the Deyo family, New Paltz historian, Al Marks "The Evolution of a Town," notes

[…]the DuBois and Deyo families were soon brought even closer together by the marriage of Abraham DuBois with another of the daughters of Christian Deyo, who thus became grandfather of so many of the New Paltz inhabitants that even his property became known simply as 'Grandpere' in the old deeds. The calculation of shares of that property passed down to his heirs became, after a generation or two, an exercise in high mathematics."

Abraham and Margaret had a daughter, Leah DuBois, who married into another famous French family, the Ferrees. Although the French were guests of the Dutch in Nieuw Netherlands, they tended to keep to themselves. Few children of the original patentees married with Dutch families but there were other French families about beyond New Paltz. One of these families was the Ferrees.

Leah was baptized on October 16, 1689, in New Paltz three days after her sister Rachel. Leah's godparents were Solomon DuBois and Mary LeBlanc. Abraham and Margaret moved to Somerset County, New Jersey before Leah was of age. When she had reached sufficient age, she married Philip Ferree and moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where his father had a patent for 1,000 acres. Philip was the son of Daniel Ferree and Marie de la Warenbuer.

Tombstone of Abraham Du Bois, Huguenot Cemetery, New Paltz, New York

Among the old records at Albany is an abstract of the will of Abm. DuBois, survivor of the New Paltz Patentees. The will, which was probated in 1731, mentions the wife Margaret, the sons Abraham and Joel, the daughters Sara (wife of Roelif Eltinge) Leah (wife of Philip Ferree) Rachel and Catharine. The will disposes of land on the Raritan in New Jersey, on the south side of the Paltz River (Walkill) at New Paltz, at Canistoga and house and lot at New Paltz; also personal property. The executors are the son Abraham and the son-in-law Roelif Eltinge. Daniel DuBois is one of the witnesses. 

The House of Philip and Leah Ferree in Paradise, Pennsylvania

Philip and Leah would end out their lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and were buried in Carpenter's Graveyard, Paradise, Pennsylvania. The graveyard site was selected by Leah and is located on the original Daniel Ferree farm.

Philip and Leah had a son Jacob who married Barbara Carpenter, the daughter of a Swiss Mennonite who had also immigrated to Lancaster County. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married John Gibboney and they had a son, Bejamin Gibboney.

Benjamin is the father of Elizabeth Ferree Gibboney, who will marry Nicholas T. Brown in Ohio, travel to Iowa, and become an early widow.

Elizabeth Ferree Gibboney Brown and her generations, daughter Margaret, granddaughter Elva, and great-granddaughter Gladys.