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History of Orange County
Settlement of Orange County
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In confirmation of our remarks, we make an extract from an editorial article in the first No. of the Ulster Huguenot, printed at Kingston, written by a gentleman well acquainted with the history of these early emigrants and persecuted men:
“The Ulster Huguenots were a fragment of that resolute Christian band of 50,000 who fled from France in the 17th century, to escape the rack and wheel of a persecution for conscience-sake, to which no parallel is found in history. The Edict of Nantz had promised them safety; and though they were for a time apparently restored to that liberty which they so deeply prized, yet their grievances at length became insupportable, and they were compelled to fly for their safety—some repairing to Switzerland, others to Germany—to Holland and to England. The eyes of many of these sufferers were soon turned towards the New World. They looked here for rest from strife and persecution—for a land where they might live according to the dictates of temperance and virtue; and worship their Creator as they thought appropriate. Many of these exiles settled in the values or Ulster. We have the names of twelve of these early settlers:
Lewis Dubois,
André Lefebre,
Lewis Bevier,
Hugur Frere,
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Christian Deyo,
Jean Hasbrouck,
Anthoine Crispell,
Isaac Dubois,
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Abraham Hasbrouck,
Pierre Deyo,
Abrabam Dubois,
Liman Lefbre
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We are unable to give the names of all who followed these emigrants; but from them have sprung numerous descendants who now form a large portion of the most worthy inhabitants of our County. The story of the cruelties inflicted on these early settlers by the barbarous Indians—of their undaunted perseverance in the midst of trials—that love of freedom; that regard for a life of temperance and piety which they at all times displayed, is calculated at once to enlist our warmest sympathies, and to inspire us with the highest admiration for their virtues.”
The term "Huguenot" was first applied to the Protestants in France by way of derision, and had its rise in 1560. According to some authors, the term had its origin from a Gate in the city of Taurs, called the Gate of Fourgon, by corruption from feu Heugon, i.e. the late Hugon. This Hugon was a count of Taurs, very wicked, fierce and cruel, insomuch that his ghost returned and beat and abused all he met. Others say it was applied to the Protestants because they met to worship in subterraneous vaults near the Gate of Hugon. They were first called so at the city of Taurs.— Others derive it from the circumstance that they were friendly to keeping the line of Hugh Capet on the throne. Others still derive it from a French pronunciation of the German word edignossen, signifying confederates. These confederates were called Eignots, whence Huguenots.
The first settlement along the Hudson was made in the town of Newburgh on the German patent, near the site of the village of Newburgh, by emigrants from Germany, who had procured a patent from Queen Anne in 1719, for 2,190 acres at a place on the Hudson then called Quassaic, and came and made a location. These Germans just made a settlement, laid out the outlines of a village called Newburgh, became dissatisfied with the location for some cause, now not known, and sold out their settlement. Some of them went up the river to Albany and others to New Jersey, and other settlers took their places; but who they were, where from, or at what time this transaction happened, we are not well informed of. While the Dutch held the province of New York the emigration was slow, but after it passed into the possession of the English in 1664, it became more rapid and numerous, and chiefly from England. The early settlers in Newburgh, after the Germans left, were a mixture from England and Ireland, with some Dutch of Huguenot descent, whom at this day it is not easy to assort and assign their proper places in the work of populating the town. Several families about this time came from some of the Eastern States, whose descendants are still there in great numbers.