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The DeForests of Avesnes and of New Netherland
The DeForests of Avesnes and of New Netherland Author:John William De Forest Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION. The root of the patronymic De Forest is the Teutonic word forst, pronounced by the Hollanders and Flemings vorst. It was brought over the Rhi... more »ne by conquering Germanic hordes, and was ere long latinized by their Gallo-Roman subjects into fores/us, which in its earlier usage meant a hunting park, and not merely a region covered with trees. The Prankish kings established many such parks in their dominions, some for their own pleasure, others for the benefit of monasteries, others for favorite officers and courtiers. It resulted that in France and the French Netherlands there sprang up nearly forty villages and hamlets variously called Forest, La Forest and Le Forest; for the word was formerly either masculine or feminine, and in some dialects needed no definite article. Hence, too, in the course of centuries came many families who styled themselves de Forest, or de la Forest, or du Forest, most of them lordly possessors of demesne and castle, but others simple burghers or perhaps peasants. For in ancient days the "noble particle " de did not necessarily signify nobility. It was sometimes used by plain people to express provenance, that is topo chapter{Section 4graphical orgeographical origin. For instance, wood- chopper Jean, by way of explaining that he dwelt beyond the hill, might call himself Jean d'Outremont, a name not unlike the English Overkill or Underhill. Or carpenter Jacques, of Vitry, who should remove to some neighboring borough, might there record himself as deVitry, meaning from Vitry. It is true that such cases were not very numerous, and that a pre6x thus assumed was generally soon relinquished. But the fact that such cases did exist debars us from affirming that a family bearing the de was consequently noble, unless the nobility is estab...« less