PBSCV1599
Gen. James Patton Anderson Camp 1599
Celebrating 32 Years 1992 - 2024
Dubose ancestors were French Huguenots
Published 12:00 am Saturday, December 5, 2009
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A third line of the DuBose families who had descendants to reside in Covington County will be featured in today’s column. Members of this family have done extensive research on their DuBose heritage. The earliest ancestor to be identified is Gueffin Dubose (Dubosc) who was born in 1432 in Roen, France, and died in 1519 in Coquereaumont, France. He was married to a young French lady named Isabelle.
The Dubose ancestors were among the French Huguenots who left France seeking religious freedom. A later descendant of Gueffin DuBose, Isaac DuBose Sr., left France circa 1685 and migrated to Charles Towne in the Carolina province. He settled along the Santee River and was eventually residing in the French Santee community near Charleston, S.C. This means the Duboses would have been some of the earliest families to settle in that area. They thrived and received many land grants and plats from the government. Isaac Sr.’s will was dated in 1714.
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Isaac DuBose was the son of Louis Du Bose, born in Dieppe, Normandy, France. Louis was married to d’Anne Du Bose who was born ca 1656 in France as well. The names of their other children were not found in the available genealogy on this family.
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Isaac DuBose was born circa 1665 in France and was married in 1688, soon after he arrived in this country, to Susanne Couillandeau, daughter of Pierre Couillandeau, Jr. He died in 1721 in the French Santee community.
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Isaac Sr. and Susanne reared the following children: Elizabeth, b. ca 1691, d. 1736; Isaac Jr., b. ca 1693, d. 1742; Daniel, b. ca 1695, d. ca 1755; Stephen, b. ca 1701; Peter, b. ca 1705; John, b. ca 1706, d. 1778; Andrew, b. 1712, d. ca 1787; Martha, b. ca 1723; Rebecca, b. ca 1725; and Mary, b. ca 1727.
The son, Andrew DuBose Sr. and his wife, ? Carter, d/o George Sinclair, had at least the following children: Andrew Jr, b. ca 1750, d. 1806, m Elizabeth (Betsy) Mims; Peter, b. 1755, d. 1846, m. Elaine Worthington; Elisha; Elizabeth, m. Zachariah Norwood, and possibly two unnamed females.
Andrew Sr.’s son, Andrew DuBose Jr., and his wife, Betsy (Mims), lived and died in South Carolina. They reared the following children in that state: Genetta, b. 1771, m. (1) Jehu Mixon II (2) John Hurst; Penelope; Rhoda, m. Allan Grooms (2) ? Locklier; Peter Jr. , b. ca 1774, d. 1850, m. Elizabeth ?; John, b. ca 1784, d. ca 1860, m. Mary Polk; Sinclair C., b. ca 1790, d. 1869, m. Rebeckah Hudson; and Jenetta, b. ca 1798.
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Andrew Jr.’s son, John DuBose, was born in South Carolina, but he later moved his family to Union, Fla. He was married to Mary Polk, daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Moore) Polk. They reared at least the following three children: Ezekiel Dossy, b. 1825, d. 1900, m. Cassandra Ann Perniece; Sarah Ann Elizabeth, b. 1827, d. 1883, m. Wesley Clark; and Allefare (Allaphaire), b. 1829, d. 1903, m. John Milligan. All three children died and were buried in Florida.
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Andrew Jr.’s son, Sinclair C. DuBose, was first married to Mary Rebecca Hudson (1795-1842). They had the following children: Henry James, b. 1820, d. 1859; William “K.,” b. 1821, d. 1860; Joshua Thomas, b. 1822, d. 1858; Benjamin C., b. 1826, d. 1880; Sewel Wesley, b. 1826, d. 1888, m. 1848 Elizabeth Brockinton; Gehue Columbus, b. 1827, d. 1899; Francis A., b. 1830, d. 1868; Eliza A., b. 1831; John C., b. 1837, d. 1900; and Mary, b. 1839, d. 1871.
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Sinclair C. DuBose and his second wife, Elizabeth “Eliza” Ann (Huggins), reared the following three children: Robert S., b. 1841; Andrew E., b. 1843; and Herbert S., b. 1845. Sinclair was married a third time to Adeline Huggins, but they did not have any children.
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Another son of Sinclair, Benjamin C. DuBose, was married in South Carolina circa 1845 to Elizabeth ?. They had the following children: John Wesley, b. 1844, d. 1908, m. 1871 Lucy Ann Hamilton (1857-1908); Easter, b. ca 1846; Ellen, b. ca 1848; James, b. ca. 1850; George, b. ca 1852; and Emily E., b. 1848. Benjamin C. later was married to ? Vess or Wilson, and they moved to Georgia and reared a family there.
Sinclair’s son, Sewel Wesley DuBose, was married in 1848 in Cypress of Lee County, South Carolina, to Elizabeth Ann Gwynn Jenkins (1833-1909), daughter of Samuel Dupre and Helen Elizabeth (Brockinton) Jenkins. She was the granddaughter of James Jenkins, a pioneer Methodist minister.
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Sewel Wesley and Elizabeth DuBose reared the following children: Martha DuPre, b. 1849, d. 1918, m. 1865 Francis Marion Large (1843-1874) CSA veteran; Mary Henrietta, b. 1851, d. 1897, m. 1868 Alexander S. McKenzie; Helen Rebecca Elizabeth, b. 1853, d. in infancy; James Joshua, b. 1855, d. 1895, m. 1880 Aletha Hill (1861-1896); Lela Carentine, b. 1859, d. 1881, m. 1875 Lemuel B. Jordan (1859-1910); Samuel Wesley P., b. 1861, d. 1927, m. (1) 1881 Annie Parham (2) 1900 Maggie Parham; William Brockinton, b. 1863, m. (1) 1885 Henrietta Eavely (2) 1888 Mattie Parham (3) 1899 Janie Parham (4) 1905 Edna Earl Scarborough; Robert McKendree, b. 1866, d. 1921, m. 1893 Esther A. DuBose; Walter Jenkins, b. 1868, m. 1888 Leila Alexander; Edward Benton, b. 1870, m. 1890 Armeda Butler; Sallie Jenkins, b. 1873, d. 1896, single; Charles Bunyan, b. 1875, d. 1956, m. 1909 Martha Parnell (1888-1945); and Toland Duncan, b. 1877, d. 1896, single.
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Sinclair’s son, Jehu or Gehue Columbus DuBose, was born in 1827 in South Carolina and was married there in Kershaw to Nancy Welch. They left the state during the 1850s to Vernon and Crossville, Ala. They returned to South Carolina during the 1890s, and Jehu died there in 1900.
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Jehu and Nancy DuBose reared the following children: Martha, m. ? Galloway; Elizabeth, m. ? Wilson; Huger; John; Peter; Gilbey, m. Alice Devine; Samuel Sinkler, b. 1860, d. 1935, m. Medorea Ellen Corbett; Mollie, m. ? Devine; Mary; Monroe, m. Hattie Joye.
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Sinclair’s son, Francis A. DuBose, was married in 1853 in South Carolina to Mary Elizabeth Bailey. They chose to move to Chilton County, Ala., and made that their home. He served in the War Between the States and returned home, but he died soon afterwards. He was buried in the Jemison Cemetery, near Clanton. His widow, Mary Elizabeth, later made her home in Fayette County, Ala.
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Francis and Mary Elizabeth reared the following children: Rebecca, m. Joe Dobbs; Mary Margaret, b. 1860, d. 1951, m. 1883 James Ben Cunningham (1857-1942; Elizabeth Della, b. 1873, d. 1960, m. (1) Poet V. Nuchols (1875-1918) (2) ? McCrory; Frank, d. from a horse kicking him; and William Jackson, m. Mary Frances Corbett.
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In next week’s column, an additional son of Sinclair DuBose, William K. DuBose, will be featured. A number of his descendants have lived in the Andalusia area and throughout Covington and surrounding counties.
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The source for this writing includes the family records of William “Bill” DuBose of Pensacola, Fla. Appreciation is expressed to him for making these available for today’s column.
DuBose family was part of Hunt’s founding years
Arkansas-born John Elias DuBose (1852-1929) had 11 children from three marriages. Three of his sons married three Byas sisters. John is shown here at left with his third wife, Martha Littleton Sweatt, and her daughter, Minnie Sweatt, who married Hunt Postmaster Virgil Wootton. John and Martha bought and sold hundreds of acres in the early days of Hunt, as they moved in and out.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This is the 133rd of a series of articles marking Kerr County’s sesquicentennial.
By Irene Van Winkle
West Kerr Current
Doris Bierschwale Wilkes was a tiny girl during the ravaging Hill Country flood of 1932, but she said she still recalls when her parents’ home along the Guadalupe River was completely washed away. She also recalls a quick recovery.
“The Red Cross gave each family $600 to build a house,” she said, which, amazingly, her father, Robert, did.
As was the case with the Bierschwales (See West Kerr Current, Nov. 1, 2007), a similar resilience and resolve was in Doris’s maternal ancestors, the DuBose family.
Doris and her husband, Chester, who live in San Antonio, visit here often, and do research on the family’s ancestry and movements.
The DuBoses were transplanted from Europe centuries ago due to religious disputes. They were French Huguenots, who eventually came to Germany before landing on American shores. It is possible that the name was also DuBois, since the description on the DuBose family crest says, “Of the woods, but not woodsy.” Translated from French, the word “bois” means woods.
In “The Days of the Upright, The Story of the Huguenots,” by O.J.A. Roche, the DuBose ancestors were mentioned during the upheavals following the 1598 Edict of Nantes issued by King Henry IV of France. It was meant to end the religious wars, and give Huguenots (or Calvinist Protestants) more rights in an essentially Catholic country.
But, Roche said, “... judges throughout the country, acting ‘within the law,’ ignored the edicts; and the accumulated precedent of the anti-Protestant decisions became the general law of France.”
A trickle of wealthy Huguenots gradually began to emigrate. After the ascent of Henry’s grandson, Louis XIV, matters worsened. Louis tried to stem the tide of emigration, confiscating goods, and jailing the friends of those who left. Roche continued:
“Pierre du Bosc, minister of one of the wealthiest remaining Huguenot churches, at Caen, in Normandy, was selected to appear before the Royal Council. With Louis XIV present, DuBosc made a speech outlining the Huguenot case: ‘We are everywhere forced to the wall,’ he said. ‘Our condition is one of calamity; it is no longer endurable. Our houses of worship have been taken away. We are forbidden to practice our trades. We are not allowed to make a living.’ Then he warned:
“‘When they see the dike (of the Edict of Nantes) broken, they will expect the waters to burst through in a great flood. And in confusion and fear, each man will seek safety in flight. The Kingdom of France will witness the departure of more than a million people, to the great harm of business, manufacturing, farming, the trades and the arts, and to the whole prosperity of the Realm.’”
DuBosc’s appeal only worked briefly. By 1685, Louis XIV renounced the edict, declaring Protestantism illegal. The tide of immigrants swelled into France’s rivals of Prussia, Holland, Switzerland and Great Britain, draining it of many skilled individuals.
Doris said that there were seven generations of church-builders in her family. This did not mean they were stone masons, but people who built up congregations.
“They went to Germany where Martin Luther was, after leaving France,” Doris said. After they settled in America, they eventually turned to the Primitive Baptist faith. Doris said that the DuBose family settled in the Santee River area of South Carolina.
“DuBose Genealogy” by Dorothy Kelly MacDowell cites Peter, or Pierre DuBose (1703-1757), born in South Carolina, as the son of French immigrants, Isaac (1665-1740) and Suzanne Couillandeau DuBose. Isaac was born in Normandy, the son of Louis and Anne.
Peter married a much younger woman, Madelaine Dayer Guerry (born ca. 1725), and they lived in Christ Church Parish. One of their sons was Isaac Elbert DuBose (born in 1750-1824), who was a civil servant for the state of Georgia in the Revolutionary War. He and wife Sarah moved to near Milledgeville, Ga. and then to the Alabama River area.