Louis Du Bois (Huguenot)

Louis Du Bois (21 October 1626 – 1696) was a Huguenot colonist in New Netherland who, with two of his sons and nine other refugees, founded the town of New Paltz, New York.

Louis was the son of Chrétien du Bois and Françoise le Poivre of Wicres in Artois, and later Herlies in Romance Flanders, then part of Spanish Netherlands, today included in the Hauts-de-France region, France.

The third part of Horton, "The Memory of the Just is Blessed",[1] begins with an extract from a document in the Archives du Nord, and commentary: Louis du Bois fils de feu Crestien de stil couturier dem(eurant) à Herlÿ ...at par ceste vendu cede et t(ran)sporte audict Franchois du Bois ... touttes tel part droict et action quil poeut ... avoir des suscessions et hoiries à luy venu ... par les trepas dudict Crestien son père et de Franchoise le Poivre sa mere ... (2E3/3572-110 (August 12, 1643)).

On this day in 1643, the future Patentee sold his interest in his parents' estate to his uncle "Franchois du Bois fils de feu Anthoine dem(eurant) à Wicre" (for 3,600 livres parisis).

When presented with the new evidence from Lille, readers will likely agree that American traditions regarding the birthdates of the three known Huguenot children of Chrétien du Bois — Louis, Françoise, and Jacques — should be revisited, and, perhaps, accordingly revised.The article seemingly demonstrates that the christening recorded 21 Oct 1626 at Wicres refers to Toussaint du Bois, not his brother Louis.

[2] Louis and Catherine had at least eleven children: Du Bois and his family moved to Wiltwyck, within New Netherland, around 1660, then to Hurley, New York.

Du Bois was one of eleven men to begin settling on a rise over the Wallkill River, in the center of the patent, in 1678.

Du Bois himself eventually returned to Wiltwyck, by then known as Kingston, where he died prior to his will being granted probate on June 23, 1696.