A reference mentioned is:
The De Moss family in America. by Caughron, Edith Susanna De Moss, 1887- (1951)
(There seem to be several different origin stories?)
https://archive.org/details/demossfamilyinam00caug/page/n11/mode/1u...
Page 13
“There is a tradition that two DeMoss brothers, Count Louis and Charles came to America from France soon after the St. Bartholemew Massacre of August 23 ami 24, 1572, being of the old French Huguenot stock; and that they landed at Charlestown, South Carolina; that Charles died soon of injuries received from persecutions in France, died childless, probably never married; and that Count Louis married the daughter of a Virginia planter.”
Page 13
Another tradition has it that our first DeMoss ancestor in to Virginia sometime during the Colonial period, married kidnapped and brought to Virginia where she was sold is a variation of the story heard from most DcMoss’s their DeMoss forbears, viz.: that the brothers Louis migrants, and that Charles died soon after coming, and of a Virginia planter.
Page 14
“Count Louis DeMoss, a Huguenot, fled from Paris, France, in October 1(>85; settled in Holland, where he died leaving a family; among whom were sons Louis and Charles. These sons came to America as stowaways in a ship. Charles had suffered wounds from persecutions in Europe, and these hindered his escape from an Indian attack in America which caused his death soon after coming ovei ; and probably he never married, as we have not been able to trace any account of him or de¬ scendants from him (though one tradition has it that he left a family of small chil¬ dren). Louis escaped the Indians, and married the daughter of a Virginia planter, and had a large family.
Page 30
Mrs. R. M. Hite, 611 Fairmount Ave., Fairmount, West Virginia, wrote Professor W. Wayne Smith, Moscow, Idaho, that LOUIS DUMAS and two sons CHARLES and Thomas, French, came over with Joist Hite’s son, Jacob Hite, who made trips to Eur¬ ope for settlers on the grant of land made to him by the Propietors of the Northern Neck (Lord Fairfax). This would account for the time of coming to America as later than 1732 when Joist Hite secured the Van Meter Grant of 100,000 acres of land for the settlement of a certain number of families in the Shenandoah Valley. It might have been as late as 1735: and it may well be that Louis DeMoss, son of the immi¬ grant,, LOIE DUMAS (WILL of 1743/4) was married and could have been the father of John Demoss, the Revolutionary patriot who died in Fianklin Co., Va. This John was born in France in 1732. However, since our findings in PARISH RECORDS and LAND RECORDS, of LOUIS DEMOSS (WILL of 1743/4, Orange Co., Va.) in Old Baltimore Co., Maryland, we know this one was born before 1715; and he was already in America in 1715.
