Another "documented" source often cited by those who believe the DeArmond surname variants are of French Huguenot origin, is a book published in 1997 by the Lisburn Historical Society. Lisburn is a small city located along the north bank of the Lagan river adjacent to the southwest of Belfast in County Antrim of Northern Ireland. It was once famed as one of the centers of Irish linen manufacture. The original fine quality of it's linen was attributed to Protestant French Huguenot refugees who arrived in Lisburn circa 1700. Many of them were highly skilled weavers from Picardy in northwest France, who helped to improve the already nascent Irish linen industry. Irish linen manufacture and export became so successful that the English imposed unfair restrictions so that their own industry was not threatened.
The book's author was E. Joyce Best, a member of the Historical Society, who had collected records and notes concerning the early Huguenots of Lisburn. On the whole, the book is well written and researched with historical sources mentioned for most of the Huguenot individuals and families listed in the book. However in chapter 5, we find the following oral tradition story that was apparently provided by a patron member who Mrs. Best probably felt socially obligated to recognize. The manner of how Mrs. Best retold the story, suggests she likely had private doubts to it's authenticity. Click on the text image below to enlarge the print, or go to lisburn.com and select "Books", then scroll down to "Huguenots of Lisburn", go to chapter 5 and scroll down to Deyermond.
Reputedly, the story originated from two adult bachelor brothers living on a nearby farm. Coincidently, the same two brothers are also mentioned in a footnote on page 19 in "DeArmond Families of America" by Roscoe "d'Armand". Roscoe had hired a Dublin based researcher who interviewed the two brothers in 1933. The researcher likely was aware of Roscoe's interest in a French Huguenot connection and would likely have hoped to provide any that he found in order to please his client. The brothers said the farm had been in the family for eight generations and that they were great grandsons of Thomas DeyArmon (sic.), elder of Loughaghery Church, but nothing more. It is glaringly striking how the brothers offered no information about any French surname ancestors.
The hired researcher would have most likely queried the brothers on the matter of their "French heritage". Roscoe was not adverse to including and giving credence to oral tradition stories, yet he wrote not a word. This suggests that after Roscoe's book was published in 1954, the two brothers attained a bit of minor celebrity attention and were frequently asked about their "ancestors from France". Consequently, scraps of unrelated family yarn were jelled together to concoct a story not about the refugee ancestor (no forename given) but supposedly about his sons (no forenames provided) during the still celebrated Protestant victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Then it seems probable that a Deyermond family member later pressed on Mrs. Best to include the recently manufactured Deyermond tradition in her 1997 publication.
The Huguenot refugees were likely to have been skilled in professions, trades and entrepreneurial pursuits and were not generally humble country peasants willing to work the land. By 1841 a census taken in Lisburn listed only one or two surnames likely to be of direct French origin. The Huguenot refugees or their children were eventually likely to look for economic opportunity elsewhere in nearby Belfast or abroad. They certainly were unlikely to seek employment as humble tenant farmers. The family of the two brothers likely only owned the farm since the mid 19th century when land reform laws were enacted to allow tenant farmers to buy the land they worked on with low interest mortgages.
Deyermond as a surname is clearly represented in 18th century documents in North America as belonging to paternal line ancestors of DeArmond variant descendants who tested for Y chromosome DNA matching. In every case the matches were Irish and all nearly descend.from the clan of O'Duibhdhiorma who were inhabitants of the eastern third of the Inishowen peninsula of County Donegal for at least the past 1500 years.
Above is an extract from the 1749 will of James, Line A, Roscoe's paternal line immigrant ancestor, now proven beyond question to be entirely native Irish. He is recorded as James Deyermond.
