Page 74 - Foy

most of the French seemed to have moved on, probably to South Carolina. There
are public records in which these Huguenots were described as “Good
Neighbors”. However, other than names of a couple of settlements in the area,
such as Fonville, they left little trace of their presence.

*****

All of the above information and much more is a matter of record in countless
history books about North Carolina and Craven County. But recorded and
verifiable history does not coincide with the writings of AMOS SIMMONS FOY
who, you will remember, said:

“My great grandfather was from France, he married an English lady in
Yorkshire, England. He was the one who settled, what is termed, the French
Huguenot settlement on Trent River, North Carolina. His location was at
Rocky Run, two and half miles from New Bern, in that State, hard by which
place I was born.”

As described in Craven County history the only Huguenot settlement of record
which was established along the Trent River was established in about 1708 and

soon thereafter it disappeared. There appears to be no surviving records
describing this Huguenot community and its inhabitants to which AMOS was
possibly referring.

However, there are official records for that region which mention FOYs who
lived on the Trent River in Craven County. The first FOY of record seems to be
THOMAS FOY. On December 22, 1749 THOMAS FOY purchased some three
hundred acres on the North side of the Trent River. The short lived Huguenot
community established there forty years earlier had long since disappeared
which adds to the controversy of who was the first FOYs in the area.

If THOMAS FOY, who we feel fairly certain is our ancestor, did not come to the

Trent River until 1749 and the Huguenots, who some claim had FOYs among
them, came to that area in 1708, could it actually have been the father of
THOMAS (who some name FRANCIS)who first came to that region but
returned to Maryland following the failure of the Huguenot settlement on the
Trent? This is one of the puzzles FOY researchers are working on.

Ch. 7 Pg. 3