The Foy's of Craven, Jones & Onslow Counties, NC, and Their Descendants.
Main Page   -   Table of Contents

The Foy Families of Eufaula, Alabama

Extracts from e-mails from George Stevens.
December, 1998

Most of this data was gathered the old fashioned way, before computers and web sites, by my mother (Virginia Arnold Hill, 1915-1981), and her mother (Frances Ella Foy, 1875-1966) who visited and corresponded with C. B. (Claudius Bennett?) Foy of New Bern, NC, in the 1940s & 1950s, and with other Foy relatives in Eufaula, AL. They wrote everything down in a series of black notebooks. My mother died in 1981, before I had a chance to explore problems and issues and gaps with her or to devise strategies for closing some of the gaps. In my initial excitement to lay out her data in a computerized format and to see what it described, I transcribed her data into the Reunion layout, semi-systematically (and without the rigorous documentation and source criticism that probably will be necessary eventually to nail down the sources and reliability of each fact) and have, undoubtedly, committed a few errors and typos along the way. At some point I will need to go back and annotate more carefully just where this information came from. You are welcome to share this relatively raw & unverified data with anyone who needs it, trusting (as I do) that my mother did a reasonably faithful and accurate job of recording all the details.

In a nutshell, the main Foy line that I have inherited seems to be:
1. Adam de la Foye & Marie Faulcom
2. Jacques (James) de la Foye & Jeanne Parey
3. Gabriel de la Foye & Anne du Bosc
4. Francois dela Foye (Lord of Malon) & Mary Serena Miles}
      (Other Wife was Adrienne de Wasservas)
5. Thomas Foy Sr. & Rebecca Puttee
6. Peter Foy & Hamutal Moore
7. William Foy & Elizabeth Ogilvie
8. Sampson Tucker Foy & Frances Steptoe Edwards
      (Other wife was Harriet Hays)
9. James Danily Foy & Ella Josephine Elliston
10. William Henery Hill & Frances Ella Foy (my maternal grandparents)

With regard to Peter as a son of Thomas or as a son of Francis:
You've caused me to blow the dust off my mother's notebooks and seek to find the paper from which I transcribed the data into my Reunion Files. As luck would have it, I did find two documents. A large chunk of our data seems to have come from the Eufaula, AL, concatenation of Foys. The annotation "Florence Foy Strang, 1971" is attached to one of the documents. The second document is undated & unattributed.

a.) "A Brief History of the Foy Family in America [Eufaula Branch]," 3pp, Undated, printed by hand and apparently mimeographed, and not attributed to any author, but probably originated with the Eufaula Clan, perhaps circa 1960-70.

b.) An untitled chart, attributed to "Florence Foy Strang 1971", Line & Block, Typed, Descendant Chart, 2pp; whom I suspect was part of this Eufaula Group of Foys.

Both documents suggest that Peter (b 1745) was the son of Thomas (b 1675) and thus grandson of Francis (b 1647), although there are some caveats on Peter in the first document. One small item (that caught my eye) is a notation that the Rebecca Puttee (who married Thomas Foy) was daughter of a Peter Putee. If Peter Foy was indeed the son of this union, then it occurs to me that his name well may have commemorated that of her father.

The second document traces the Foy line down from Francis thru Thomas thru Peter thru James (1770-1815), who (in 1806) married Catherine Humpheries (d.1835), and whose son Wm Humphery Foy (1813-1878) m. Mary Louisa Wilson (1831-1898) . It is of some interest to note that both the Catherine Humpheries (who married James Edgar Foy, 1770-1815) and the Mary Louisa Wilson (1831-98) who later married William Humphery Foy (1813-1878) were descendants of John Rolfe & Pochahontas. They also were cousins & related to Edith Bolling Wilson (Mrs. Woodrow Wilson). The Eufaula clan was proud of these lines and appears to have had spent some time and effort in assembling this (2nd) chart of all the various lines of their families, incl the Foys.

The first document addresses the problem of Peter in some detail, and I will attempt to transcribe it, as it is short:

A Brief History of the Foy Family in America
Eufaula Branch

The descendants of Francis Foy (Francis de la Foi, Earl of Malon) are at least elusive. For that matter so is Francis Foy himself.

The story of his arrival in Baltimore c. 1700 with his English wife, Mary Serena Miles, in company with other Huguenots, lacks proof. The date of his birth has been set at 1647. He was a mature man, having previously married in France. There was a son who remained in France when his father fled because of persecution by the Roman Catholics. He found asylum in Scotland or Ireland, then proceeded to the New World. Four children were born to this couple in Maryland: Mary, Joshua (1672), Miles (1674-1751), and Thomas (1675-1760).

The fourth child, Thomas, married Rebecca Puttee. Their child, Peter, was born in Baltimore in 1745. The Foys must then have remained in Maryland about half a century. Other children born to Thomas and Rebecca were Thomas Jr., Jacob, John, James, and Frederick.

This Frederick was born in 1751, Craven County, North Carolina. The date can be found on a marble shaft on the banks of the Trent River, four miles from New Benn, on the property of Mrs. Rodney in Foy's Woods. Thomas, an old man in 1751, was buried near the home of his youngest son. So by 1751 Francis' son Thomas, had left Maryland with his family and had settled in Craven County near New Benn.
 (I am not sure whether or not this is a Typo for New Bern?)

Peter, son of Thomas, defies researchers. We hear of his becoming a Militiaman in South Carolina in the Revolutionary War. 'Tis record that he died there in 1782 in the Battle of Moore's Creek. Members of his family removed his body back to North Carolina, probably to the section on the Trent River. Highway construction probably destroyed markers. Nothing has been found concerning his marriage to Hamital Moore. Their children were Louise, Rebecca Louise, James, Hamital, and Martha.

In Jacksonville, North Carolina, there is a cemetery to which the Federal Government is moving bodies found in remote cemeteries in Wilmington District, of which Jacksonville was once part. There are many headstones marked "Foy- Humphery Unknown." Our missing ancestors might well have lived and died near Jacksonville.

A son of James and Catherine, William Humphery Foy, was born in 1813 in Wilmington District. In the middle 1840s he headed south. When he reached Barbour County, Alabama, he visited in the home of his cousin Margaret O. Humpheries, who married Levi Wilson. He remained and married his cousin's daughter, Mary Louise Wilson.

This somewhat muddled record seems to show that Maryland, around Baltimore until 1751; Counties New Hanover, Oslow (Typo for Onslow?), Craven and Jones in North Carolina; and Barbour County, Alabama, were the haunts of the ancestors of Foys in America, Eufaula Branch.

This record, lacking proof, also seems to show that Foys in America Eufaula Branch can trace their descent from William Humphery Foy (1813-1878),
to James Foy to Peter Foy (1745-82),
to Thomas Foy (1675-1760),
to Francis Foy (1647-?).

This Eufaula Branch, descendants of William Humphery Foy and Mary Louise Wilson Foy, has suddenly become active in an effort to fill in dates and obtain bona fide evidence concerning the Foys in America before 1850. Proof there must be, in as much as in 1820 Mr. William H. Foy, Jr., paid a professional researcher, Miss Cornelia Barnett of Washington to prepare a coat-of-arms and a family tree which is copyrighted, but the legends and the notarized proof have been lost. This tree began with Peter Foy, and admission to the D.A.R. could have been made through it.

SECOND SUPPLEMENT TO ORIGINAL FOY FAMILY TREE
BY
ADDITIONS OF TWO GENERATIONS PRECEDING PETER FOY
TOTAL -- NINE GENERATIONS

Francis Foy (dela Foi, Earl of Malon) m. Mary Serena Miles (1637) [Typo for b. 1647?]
Children of Francis Foy & Mary Serena Miles:
Mary Foy Joshua Foy (1672-?)
Miles Foy (1674-1751)
Frederick Foy (1713-1815) m. Bathsheba
Thomas Foy (1675-1760) m. Rebecca Puttee (dau. of Peter Puttee)

Children of Thomas Foy & Rebecca Puttee:
John Foy (1726-?)
Jacob Foy (1731-1786)
James Foy (1737-1823)
Thomas Foy Jr. (1725-?)
Peter Foy (1745-1782)

Here Ends the First Document

Perhaps I should add that I have a large framed Foy Tree (about 30" x 45") which I inherited from my Mother & Grandmother. And they both were active, for a time, in the DAR (Joseph Habersham Chapter, in Atlanta), where I was also in CAR. Haven't gotten around to SAR yet, but we all hang our hat on descent from Peter Foy. She and my mother journeyed to Eufaula, AL, at some point and perhaps attended a Foy reunion, where they acquired this printed Foy Tree, which, as described above goes no further back than Peter Foy & Hamital Moore. The Brief Eufaula History includes a "second supplement" to extend this tree backwards. I know nothing of the "first supplement," although it may include the names of 2-3 generations of children not included on the original, which probably dates from ca. 1910-20, and is too far down in the basement for me to consult, just now, for the exact date.

Here Begins the 2nd Document (as transcribed from a line chart, by me)

Foy Descendant Chart
Florence Foy Strang, 1971"

Francis Foy (Lord of Malon), born 1647 in France married Adrienne (first wife); 2 sons, died in France married Serena Miles, (second wife), English
Children of Francis Foy & Serena Miles:
Joshua (b 1672)
Miles (1674-1751)
Mary
Thomas (1675-1760 & married Rebecca Puttee

Children of Thomas Foy & Rebecca Puttee:
Thomas John (b. 1726)
James (1737-1827)
Jacob Frederick (1751-1815)
Peter (1745-1782) & in 1769 married Hamital Moore

Children of Peter Foy & Hamital Moore:
William (b. 1780) [m. Elizabeth Ogilvie and begat my line]
Hamital (b. 1778?)
Louise (b. 1772)
Martha (b. 1774)
Rebecca (b. 1776)
James ( 1770-1815) & in 1806 m. Catherine Humpheries (d. 1835)

Children of James Foy & Catherine Humpheries:
John E. m. Harriet Rutherford
Martha m. Dr. James Rutherford
Anna m. Werts
Mary m. William Burkhalter
William Humphrey Foy (1813-78) & in 1849 m. Mary Louisa Wilson (1831-98)

Children of Wm. Humphrey Foy & Mary Louisa Wilson:
James
John
Simpson
Levie
William
Cliff
Ida
Robert

Footnote:
Francis Foy, Earl of Malon, was married first to a French woman whose first name was Adrienne and they had two sons. During the persecution of the Protestants in France in the 17th Century, he fled to England. Nothing is known of the fate of his first family. While in England he married Mary Serena Miles. They came to America with other Huguenots in the 1670s or 1680s and settled in Baltimore County, Maryland.
-- Frances Foy Strang 1971

Page Two:

John Rolfe (1585-1622) in 1614 m. Pochahontas (Matoaka or Rebecka, 1595-1617)
Their son, Thomas Rolfe (b. 1615) m. Jane Polythress
Their dau., Jane Rolfe, in 1675 m. Capt. Robert Bolling (1646-1709)
Their son, John Bolling (1676-1729) in 1697 m. Mary Kennon
Their son, John Bolling (1700-1757) in 1728 m. Elizabeth Blair
Their dau., Mataoka Bolling (b. 1729) in 1743 m. James Sullivan (1722-1809)
Their dau., Rebecca Sullivan (b. 1744) in 1759 m. Ezekiel Roland
Their dau., Anne Roland (b. 1761) in 1777 m. William Humphries
a. Their dau., Catherine Humpheries m. James Edgar Foy (son of Peter Foy); while
b. Their son, Roland Humpheries (d. 1814) married Rachel Pou (below)

Descent of Rachel Pou is as follows:
Phillip Pou (French) married Ursula Marina (Spanish)
Their son Gavin Pou married Margaret Neri
Their son Robert Pou married Ann Wolfe
& Their Daughter, Rachel Pou, married Roland Humpheries (d. 1814, above)
& their daughter, Margaret Pou Humpheries m. Levi R. Wilson (1810-73, below)

Meanwhile: Russel Wilson m. Mary Simpson Butler
Their Son, Simpson Wilson m. Margaret Manning
Their Son, Levi R, Wilson (1810-1873) m. Margaret Pou Humpheries (above)
Their Dau, Mary Louisa Wilson (1831-98) m. Wm. Humphrey Foy (1813-78, above)

Footnote:
The paperback book "POCAHONTAS" by Marguerite Stuart Quarles can be ordered from the Assn. for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Richmond, VA. In addition to the life of Pocahontas, this book gives genealogical information on the Rolfe family in England and traces the line from Pocahontas to Edith Bolling, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. It is the same line as ours until you get to the second John Bolling who married Elizabeth Blair. Mrs. Wilson was descended from a son of this union; we are descended from a daughter, Mataoka Bolling, who married James Sullivan.
--Florence Foy Strang 1971.

Here ends the Second Document.

On reflection, these are secondary and tertiary collections of unattributed data, and I can see that there are lots of holes in the information, but the Eufaula folk seemed to have little or no hesitancy in ascribing Peter as the son of Thomas Foy. I clearly need to do some more reading & reflecting. I do have about 2-3 inches of paper; including a few wills and some legal (and hopefully more accurate) transcriptions of court house papers, militia records, etc. I will try to assemble a bibliography at a later date or send a copy. The material I have must be 20-30 years old.

Submitted by George Stevens
December 1998

If you have a question, can add any information, or find a broken link please contact:

Trisha Carden

Copyright Information


  Much of the information published here is copyrighted by the various researchers listed on our contributor page. To obtain permission to use this information please contact the researchers individually. This site is not meant for use for commercial purposes.