| Notes |
- "HANS GRAF AND HIS DESCENDANTS" by Lindsey M. Brien. (Handtyped book
at Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN: "The name du Bois means
from the forest and was a family name in Artois and Normandy before
William the Conqueror left his native shore. The Heraldic Records in
the Royal Library of Paris declare that the DuBois family is one of
the oldest of the noble families of the Bailiwick of Contentin,
Normandy. The genealogy begins with Geoffroi du Bois, a Knight
Banneret under William the Conqueror whom he accompanied in 1066 into
England." The Du Bois is a very old family, also a military family
and furnished to France some able soldiers. From Welles Ancestral
Chart: "Louis DuBois was the progenitor of the family in America.
He was the son of Chretian DuBois and was born on the farm at Wicres,
Oct 27 1626, but little is known of his early life. His hand writing
proves that went to school...It is certain that he was a protestant
and a calvinest, or one who in his native land was called a Huguenot.
When a young man he left his native land and went to Manheim in the
Paltz, or German Palatinate; while there he married Catherine
Blanchin, Oct 10, 1655. She was the daughter of Matthys or Matthew
Blanchan, who came to New Amsterdam, 27 Apr. 1660 on the ship "Gilden
Otter" (the wife of Matthew was Madelin Gore (or Goore or Jorissen, as
it is sometimes written)" Baid--The Huguenot Immigration to America,
p. 187 "Among the Walloons that came to New Netherland in the last
days of Dutch occupation, was Louis DuBois, founder of the Huguenot
settlement of New Paltz, in Ulster County, N.Y. Louis was the son of
Chretian DuBois, an inhabitant of Wicres, a hamlet in the district of
LaBarree near Lille in Flanders, where he was born, 27 Oct. 1627."
Two sons of Chretian DuBois came to America, Louis and Jacques. Louis
was called "par excellence, the Walloon." The date of their landing
is not definitely known. The will of Louis DuBois is dated 16 May
1679 and proved June 23, 1696. His widow survived him many years and
married, second Jean Cottin of New York."
"AMERICAN VAN METRE FAMILY" Smyth, (Allen County Public Library, Fort
Wayne, IN) "Louis du Bois de Fiennes, born Oct. 10, 1626, in
LaBasse, near Lille, in the province of Artois, France, married, Oct.
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 Wieres, Artois, France. Louis died 1695. Monsieur Le Turque, of
the Genealogical Institute of Paris, has developed a line of ancestors
running back to the days of the Scyrri which includes descent from
Charlemagne, Emperor of the West; Alfred the Great; Hugh Capet, King
of France, and Henry I, Emperor of Germany. The most important of
these lines have been compared and verified; and where the line is
broken the cause is attributed to the summary action of Louis XIV's
minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and Marshall Turenne, who decreed that the
names of many of the noble families of France, who espoused and held
the faith of Protestantism, should be erased from the rolls of
nobility and their property confiscated.....thousands of French
families fled to England, Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. It was
during the latter part of this reign of terror that the father of
Louis du Bois found shelter in the Palatinate of the Rhine.
According to this tracing of the family the line begins wtih Guelph,
Prince of the Scyrri, A.D. 476. Azo, Marquis of Liguria, A.D. 1030, a
descendant of the Prince in the fourteenth generation, married Marie,
a descendant of the powerful house of Este, in Italy. The Estes were
of the Aetii of Rome who settled in Lombardy about 500 B.C. Guelph,
grandson of Azo and Marie, Count of Bavaria and Saxe, A.D. 1107,
married Judith, a descendant of Charlemagne. A great grandson of
Guelph and Judith, Henry V, Duke of Bavaria and Saxe, A.D. 1195,
married Mathilde, a descendant of William the Conqueror, thru Henry I,
and Henry II, of England. Henry VI, son of the Duke of Bavaria and
Saxe and Mathilde, married A.D. 1200, Agnes, Countess of Palatine, a
descendant of Alfred the Great. A descendant of Henry VI, and Agnes,
Madame Claude de Lanney, married Charles du Bois, Seigneur des
Querder, who was a descendant of MacQuaire du Bois, Count de Roussey,
A.D. 1110 The oldest children of Louis du Bois were born in
Mannheim; and in 1660 the family came to America. Upon their arrival
here they proceeded to New Village (New Pals) in Ulster Co. NY, wher
Louis rapidly rose to prominence in the local civil and religious
affairs....Louis was also a member of the first Court of Sessions held
at Kingston, the seat of Ulster County He led in demanding of the
English government...that there should be no taxation without the
consent of the people, and for this daring attitude he lost his
commission, thus anticipating the crisis of 1775 In 1663, Louis du
Bois headed an expedition against the Minnisink Indians, and was of
the colonial forces against them in 1670. The first-named punitive
expedition of June 7, 1663, was known in New York history as the
Eusopus War. It was organized at the time the settlement was attacked
by the Minnisinks, who burned Hurley, killed and injured some of the
settlers, and carried away prisoners, the wife of Louis du Bois, his
three children, and at least two of Jan Joosten's. These were taken
to the fastnesses of the Catskill Mountains and there remained in
captivity for months, but were rescued on the eve of torture by du
Bois and Capt. Martin Kreiger's company of Manhattan soldiers; the
trainband finally rounded up the Indians and defeated them on Sep. 3,
1663. In connection with this tragic experience the following
statement is quoted: "About ten weeks after the capture of the women
and children, the Indians decided to celebrate their own escape from
pursuit by burning some of their victims and the ones selected were
Catherine du Bois, and her baby Sara, who afterward married her
companion in captivity, John Van Metre. A cubical pile of logs was
arranged and the mother and child placed thereon; when the Indians
were about to apply the torch, Catherine began to sing the 137th Psalm
as a death chant. The Indians withheld the fire and gave her respite
while they listened; when she had finished they demanded more, and
before she had finished the last one her husband and the Dutch
soldiers from New Amsterdam arrived and surrounded the savages, killed
and captured some, and otherwise inflicted terrible punishment upon
the, and released the prisoners" (from Martin Kreiger's Journal,
Mackenzie's Col Fam. U.S. VII, p. 472) Louis du Bois was one of the
founders, and first elder of the Reformed Dutch Church at New
Paltz...After his death, in 1695, his widow married Jean Cotton."
"HISTORY OF SHEPHERD AND RELATED FAMILIES" by Frank Shepherd (1858-?)
pub 1943 (Indiana State Library), p. 3,4,6 "When Louis du Bois grew
to a man's estate and could not bring himself to accept the religious
faith of the Jesuits--when he saw with horror the bloody axe of the
guillotine and knew that would be his fate if he refused to bow the
knee to their demands and surrender the right to obey his conscience,
to save his life he fled to the lower Palatinate of Germany where many
other Huguenots had found refuge. Here, on Oct. 10, 1655, he married
Catherine Blanchan the daughter of Mathese Blanchen a co-refugee with
him from Flanders. For five years they lived at Manheim Germany
until their first two children were born. But Germany even in those
early days over populated and crowded and many were looking towards
the new world across the sea for new homes. To escape we find Louis
du Bois and his family emigrating to America in 1660 on the good ship
Saint Marie to land in New Amsterdam, (now New York City) and went up
the Hudson River to settle at 'Nieum Village' now known as Hurley near
Kingston in Ulster County At this time there were but a few settlers
there and the Minnesink Indians, who claimed all that country, were
suspicious and troublesome. Life in outlying settlements was very
insecure. Indian raids and massacres were frequent happenings while
the new settlers lived in constant dread of surprises and capture not
knowing the tragic moment of an Indian uprising with all its horrible
possibilties--death was ever in their thoughts." (after the capture
of his wife and child and subsequent return) Seven years later the
Indians went on the warpath again and Louis du Bois served in the
Colonial force against them. Soon after Louis du Bois came to Ulster
County he rose to promince in the civil and religious life of the
settlement. He was one of the 12 original patentees of New Peltz, a
village next to Hurley. He later became one of the magistrates of a
jurisdiction comprising both New Paltz and Herley. He is credited
with being the founder of and first elder in the French Reformed
Church at New Paltz. Louis du Bois lived to a ripe old age of 70. At
his death in 1696 (his will probated on Mar. 27) he left a widow and
ten children."
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Carl & Elaine (Grove) Rhodes' Genealogy Pages
1627 - 1696 (68 years)