Page 51 - Foy

It's not hard to imagine how such a conversation could lead to an idea for a
second name for the different JOHNs in the area. In the above conversation
names like JOHN HILL or JOHN DALE or JOHN WILLIAMSON or JOHN
ROBERTSON or JOHN SMITH or JOHN TAILOR or JOHN LONG or JOHN
BALD (or BALLARD which means "the bald one") seem like naturals.

History relates that by 1500AD almost all of Europe's families had adopted a
family name. Today we call that family name a surname , and it is passed on to
the children of families.

Surname comes from a French word which means above-or-overname.
There are many good books in the libraries about names in general and
surnames in particular.

It is obvious how some surnames came to be. Many of the oldest known
surnames came from nicknames (KATHERINE DOOLITTLE, the lazy one), or

the first names of parents (HAROLD JOHNSON, son of JOHN), or occupations
(BRIAN BOWLES, a bowl maker), or from where people lived (RICHARD
TOWNSEND, who lived at the edge [end] of town).

Exactly how or where the surname FOY originated is not known. The best
information that I have found regarding the name FOY comes from a book
written by MARY B. JACOBS, titled The FOY Family of North Carolina.
JACOBS spent more than 50 years gathering information about the FOYs. The
book was revised in 1942, and a copy of it with the original photographs is
maintained in the Foy museum at POPLAR GROVE PLANTATION, Rt. #1,
Box 496A, Wilmington, North Carolina 28405.

MARY’s grandmother was HENRIETTA RHODES FOY JACOBS (1836-1858).

HENRIETTA's parents were HIRAM WASHINGTON FOY (1810-1860) and
SUSANNA WESTBROOK (1809-1859).

HIRAM WASHINGTON FOY's parents were JAMES FOY JR. [or JAMES
FOY II] (1774-1825) and HENRIETTA RHODES (1775-1840).

JAMES FOY JR. was the son of JAMES FOY (1737-1823) who has an extensive

Ch. 3 Pg. 3