Roscoe C. "d'Armand", author of "DeArmond" families of America" (1954) wrote on page 3 of his introduction, a sentence concerning how the surname genre did not appear as being "French" initially in North American records, which standing alone by itself is at least accurate. He writes' "By 1800 the name was being spelled Dearmond, and later DeArmond". He doesn't specify any particular time frame that "later" occurred. In the rest of the paragraph he seems to suggest that each of hundreds of distantly related cousins, long ago separated by several generations and having no awareness of each others' existence, and sharing only a variety of spellings and pronunciations of an odd surname, collectively felt an instinctual yearning to express their ancestral noble French heritage. He suggests they attempted to achieve this by spelling their surnames in a manner that resulted in a variety of affected "French" spelling alterations, with DeArmond being the most common.
Even those who believe in the metaphysical ability of the human mind must be unsatisfied with such an explanation. More realistically, some specific conditions and historic events must have played a role in how this puzzling meme occurred during the first half of the 19th century. And more specifically explain why was an Anglicized Irish surname that was generally pronounced Der-mond when the immigrant surname men reached American shores, changed to De-Ar-mond. Dearmond and several other related variants were noted in the Oxford U. Press publication, "Dictionary of American Family Names" (2003) shown below, stating that Dearmond et.al derive from Dermond, which was a reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic O'Duibhdhiorma.
Below I have assembled a series of facts, which can be easily cross checked, that the reader can review and then reach their own conclusions or not about how the today's nearly universally accepted myth of DeArmond French Huguenot origin began.
Fact #1 ,1824-5 Tour of America by Lafayette
Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, has been a cultural icon in America from our nation's conception to present day. Although his bravery in combat was unquestioned, and he incurred a leg wound at Brandywine, and he eventually acquired a degree of expertise in military leadership, his main value to the American Revolution was his political connections in France through his wife's family, helping to bring France into the war of independence against Britain, and his close association with General Washington. While Admiral DeGrasse and General Rochambeau achieved masterful naval and military successes, and thousands of French soldiers and sailors died in the cause for American independence, they are mostly forgotten while the name of Lafayette lives on in a multitude of school, park and place names throughout America.
2
Depiction of the September 28, 1824 parade of Lafayette through Philadelphia attended by massive cheering crowds of spectators hoping to get a glimpse of him.
In August 1824, Lafayette returned from France to the United States to begin a U.S. government sponsored tour of American cities with the intent to inspire patriotic fervor in time for the country's 50th anniversary. In the larger cities cheering crowds of thousands gathered to gain a glimpse of him, and at every stop in his travels about the nation he was welcomed warmly. The tour finally ended in September 1825, and he was transported back to France by an American naval frigate. The heightened American Francophilia fervor lasted long after his visit well until WW1, when General Pershing gave a speech in France after the first American troops arrived, and proclaimed: "Lafayette, nous voila!".
Drawing from Roscoe's book I found one of his earliest 19th century record mentions of use of "DeArmond". On page 36, footnote 4, a Robert DeArmond et.al., had a Knox County court judgement rendered against them to pay the State Bank of Tennessee $1427 on April 8, 1826. Up to that date, all documentation records throughout his book show only Dearmond or the like used up to and including the 1820 census records, then following the mid 1820s many entries are spelled DeArmond, DeArment, DeYarmon, DeArmit, etc. Roscoe's interpretation of the mostly illegible deathbed 1748 signature of James, Line A as spelling out D'Armond was purely his wishful imagination. Lafayette had visited Nashville, Tennessee less than a year earlier and was honored by the city and met with Andrew Jackson. Four days later the Ohio river steamship carrying him to Louisville, Kentucky sank. Lafayette was safe but lost his money and travel possessions.
Fact #2, Irish Catholic immigration to America in the 19th century.
During this same time period prior to the 1840s Potato Famine, thousands of Irish immigrants came to North America. They were mostly men who were willing to work for low pay in often wretched and deadly conditions, primarily building transportation infrastructure. Their labor contracts usually always included a ration of whiskey which they were fond of. English prejudice against the Irish dates back to the early Plantagenet kings when an observer described the Irish as eating cattle meat solely because they were too lazy to cultivate crops and were animal like themselves. The Reformation and the bloody rebellions of the Catholic Irish against the British Protestants in Ireland, intensified British general disdain for the Irish. The tradition of prejudice toward the Irish traveled to the colonies and became institutionalized among American Protestants in the 1820s when Irish Catholic immigration began to increase.and then became a flood of entire impoverished families driven by hunger from the Potato famine in the 1840s.
Above: Defamatory illustration which was comparable to other published cartoons and writing found in 19th century English language printed material that discriminated against the native Catholic Irish. The illustration declared in effect that the Irish were of the same inferior origin as other sub human races. In contrast, Northern Europeans and the British were among the superior races. In truth modern DNA science reveals most English are far more closer genetically to the Irish than to the Germanic and Scandinavian races. Furthermore, all modern day humans trace their genetic ancestry eventually back to Africa.
In contrast to the unflattering portrayal of the native Irish in the illustration above, a shipwrecked officer (Capitan Francisco de Cuellar) from the Spanish Armada (1588), who sheltered from the English (who executed most survivors) for months among the native Irish, wrote to the King of Spain: "The men are large and energetic with handsome features, and the women are exceedingly beautiful.". For more detail and illustrations about de Cuellar's experiences among the Irish, see my post "Lords of An Bredach", May 16, 2017
Because of the inherent prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics at that time, many native Irish surnames were altered to disguise their Gaelic origin, or an English equivalent translation was used. Rev. Patrick Woulfe wrote in his 1906 book, Gaelic edition, "Irish Names and Surnames" how several Irish surnames were changed to appear French, such as D'Ermott for O'Duibhdhiorma. An excerpt from the 1926 English translation edition is shown below.
Fact # 3, Most of the surname immigrant ancestors were also still somewhat fluent in Gaelic.
In 1603, when the British finally achieved control of all of Ireland, including the northern region which was called Ulster, Anglo-Irish recording officials would commonly substitute names that were familiar to them instead of the strange Irish Gaelic surnames. The first British attempt to transliterate the Inishowen surname of O'Duibhdhiorma was Dooyearma, but then they chose to substitute Diermond, Dermond, Dyermott, Dermott, etc., and Dearmond. These were in turn Anglicizations of the Gaelic given name of Diarmuid, which was pronounced "Der-mid or Der-mott".
Section of 1846 published map of Irish clans and surnames where the Anglicized phonetic transliteration of the Gaelic O'Duibhdhiorma is given as O'Dooyarma.
Early 19th century Irish language and cultural scholar, John O'Donovan wrote in effect that in spite of the natives of Inishowen using Diarmuid variations when speaking in English, they always used O'Duibhdhiorma when speaking Irish. In a 1974 book about Inishowen Catholic history, and authored by Brian Bonner, (Where Aileach Guards"), noted: "The older generation still refers to the bearers of this historic surname as the "Dee-erma". However official records were kept using English and here we note the discrepancy between Gaelic and English pronunciations which gives some clue as to how the syllable shift occurred between Der-mond or Dear-mond to De-Armond!
During the prior 18th century, the tenant farming Ulster Scots, many of whom were Gaelic speakers, began a 50 year long wave of emigration to North America. This opened tenant farming work for native Irish, but was only allowed by law if they converted to a Protestant faith. Those native Irish who did convert, did so primarily to the Ulster Scot's Gaelic language friendly Presbyterianism. They eventually intermarried and became part of the continuing Presbyterian Scot-Irish emigration to North America while using their Anglicized Irish surnames when speaking English.
An observer of the troops of the American Revolutionary army, wrote that more than half were "Irish", which was the term used at that time for the former Ulster Scots. He also wrote that about half of them spoke "Irish" (Gaelic). Given these factors, we can surmise that Gaelic was still occasionally used in the "Scotch-Irish" communities of North America in the late 18th century and into the first half of the 19th among many families.
Fact #4, Clear evidence is recorded showing that the duality of Inishowen bi-lingual surname pronunciation occurred well into the 19th century in North America.
Shown above is part of the 1850 U.S. census from Crawford County PA, listing early DeArment family ancestors as "D Armah". It appears that the census taker phonetically heard the then current Irish Gaelic pronunciation "Dee-erma" or "Dee-yarma", and recorded it as a surname that he assumed to be French. In prior and later records, the name is spelled variously as Dearmont, Dearmon, Dearment and finally as DeArment.
To the south in Indiana County, PA in 1820, my paternal 3x great grandfather is recorded as William Dearment. In 1840, two of his sons, including my 2x great grandfather Henry and one brother were listed as "D'Armee", while the rest of his family is recorded with various Anglicized spellings as Dearmott, Dermott and Dearmett.
It is apparent that for the syllable shift between Dear-mxxx and De-armxxx to have occurred and for the surnames to have come to mistakenly be considered to be of French origin, the American families must have continued using both the Gaelic and Anglicized versions of their surnames well after1825. The Anglicized versions then began to adopt the syllable separation of the Gaelic version to allow their perceived origin to be French.
Extract from the 1748 will of James, Line A showing how the preparer inscribed Deyermond.
Understanding how the "y" surname versions evolved is a bit more complex. Duibh Dhiorma is pronounced as Doo-Yearma which influences the anglicized Dyermond (Diermond) to become Dey-Ermond or De-Yermond. Deyermond is inscribed by the preparer for the 1748 will of James, Line A. Today most of his Y DNA descendants spell their name DeArmond or D'Armond. Alexander Deyarmond and his wife Letitia nee Barnhill emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1767. On the 1766 Protestant Householders List for Leck Parish, County Donegal, he is listed as Alex Diermond. Today, many if not most Nova Scotia surname descendants either pronounce or spell the surname as DeYarmond or DeyArmond and cite their paternal ancestry as French Huguenot. They consider their surname to be a variant of DeArmond, as do many also in the U.S.
Fact #5, The Presbyterian Church of the Ulster Scots, even today in America and Northern Ireland still holds deep reverence for the 17th century French Huguenot refugees.
The founder of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, John Knox, spent an early period of his life in exile in Geneva as friends with Jean Calvin, a French exile who founded the Calvinist Reform movement that took hold in much of France and parts of Europe and the British Isles. Knox was strongly influenced by Calvin's ideas when he returned to Scotland to begin a new religious sect, organized with presbyter governing principles championed by Calvin, that would be eventually become the state religion of Scotland. The Presbyterian faith was taken to Ulster during the 17th century Plantation era and was often referred to as the "French church", "Calvinists", "non- conformists" or "dissenters" by Anglicans who detested it's presence.
The late 17th century Huguenots who found refuge in Ireland were at first hosted by the Anglican church. They soon realized their Calvinist traditions were better suited to the Presbyterian faith and many changed attendance to it's churches instead. Most Presbyterian ministers today will give at least one sermon dedicated to the Huguenot experience from time to time. Although only marginally related, some Presbyterian churches in America would sponsor a DeMolay boys club which held a raucous initiation skit portraying the persecution of the French Knights Templar leader Jacques DeMolay before a Catholic court of inquisition. Although the early Presbyterian Church in America lost many of it's flock to the better resourced and more numerous Methodist and Baptist churches, the Church is still usually identified with Scottish and Scot-Irish descendants and still honors the French Huguenots who sought refuge in Lisburn, southwest of Belfast, and contributed their business and artisan skills to greatly enhance the manufacture of Irish linen.
Conclusion:
Did the DeArmond French origin myth begin with the 1824-5 visit of Lafayette to America? Did census takers and other government recording officials, after Lafayette's visit, assume that the Irish Gaelic pronunciations that they were occasionally hearing informants tell them, represented a "French" surname and enhanced the spellings to make them appear so? Did the shame of being associated with the newly immigrant Catholic Irish, influence surname bearers to go along with the French misinterpretation? Was this at first merely a family joke that grew legs of own and in succeeding generations become a basic tenet of family oral traditions? Was this why the Anglicized spelling versions came to be pronounced and spelled in an affected "French" manner also? Did the Presbyterian Church's early association with and honoring of Calvinism and the legacy of the French Huguenot refugees lay the groundwork for why so many different families, isolated from each other generations before, easily accepted belief in the myth of French Huguenot origin?
Perhaps there are more accurate answers, but these are certainly points to ponder.
In contrast to the unflattering portrayal of the native Irish in the illustration above, a shipwrecked officer (Capitan Francisco de Cuellar) from the Spanish Armada (1588), who sheltered from the English (who executed most survivors) for months among the native Irish, wrote to the King of Spain: "The men are large and energetic with handsome features, and the women are exceedingly beautiful.". For more detail and illustrations about de Cuellar's experiences among the Irish, see my post "Lords of An Bredach", May 16, 2017
Because of the inherent prejudice and discrimination against Irish Catholics at that time, many native Irish surnames were altered to disguise their Gaelic origin, or an English equivalent translation was used. Rev. Patrick Woulfe wrote in his 1906 book, Gaelic edition, "Irish Names and Surnames" how several Irish surnames were changed to appear French, such as D'Ermott for O'Duibhdhiorma. An excerpt from the 1926 English translation edition is shown below.
Fact # 3, Most of the surname immigrant ancestors were also still somewhat fluent in Gaelic.
Early 19th century Irish language and cultural scholar, John O'Donovan wrote in effect that in spite of the natives of Inishowen using Diarmuid variations when speaking in English, they always used O'Duibhdhiorma when speaking Irish. In a 1974 book about Inishowen Catholic history, and authored by Brian Bonner, (Where Aileach Guards"), noted: "The older generation still refers to the bearers of this historic surname as the "Dee-erma". However official records were kept using English and here we note the discrepancy between Gaelic and English pronunciations which gives some clue as to how the syllable shift occurred between Der-mond or Dear-mond to De-Armond!
During the prior 18th century, the tenant farming Ulster Scots, many of whom were Gaelic speakers, began a 50 year long wave of emigration to North America. This opened tenant farming work for native Irish, but was only allowed by law if they converted to a Protestant faith. Those native Irish who did convert, did so primarily to the Ulster Scot's Gaelic language friendly Presbyterianism. They eventually intermarried and became part of the continuing Presbyterian Scot-Irish emigration to North America while using their Anglicized Irish surnames when speaking English.
An observer of the troops of the American Revolutionary army, wrote that more than half were "Irish", which was the term used at that time for the former Ulster Scots. He also wrote that about half of them spoke "Irish" (Gaelic). Given these factors, we can surmise that Gaelic was still occasionally used in the "Scotch-Irish" communities of North America in the late 18th century and into the first half of the 19th among many families.
Fact #4, Clear evidence is recorded showing that the duality of Inishowen bi-lingual surname pronunciation occurred well into the 19th century in North America.
Shown above is part of the 1850 U.S. census from Crawford County PA, listing early DeArment family ancestors as "D Armah". It appears that the census taker phonetically heard the then current Irish Gaelic pronunciation "Dee-erma" or "Dee-yarma", and recorded it as a surname that he assumed to be French. In prior and later records, the name is spelled variously as Dearmont, Dearmon, Dearment and finally as DeArment.
To the south in Indiana County, PA in 1820, my paternal 3x great grandfather is recorded as William Dearment. In 1840, two of his sons, including my 2x great grandfather Henry and one brother were listed as "D'Armee", while the rest of his family is recorded with various Anglicized spellings as Dearmott, Dermott and Dearmett.
It is apparent that for the syllable shift between Dear-mxxx and De-armxxx to have occurred and for the surnames to have come to mistakenly be considered to be of French origin, the American families must have continued using both the Gaelic and Anglicized versions of their surnames well after1825. The Anglicized versions then began to adopt the syllable separation of the Gaelic version to allow their perceived origin to be French.
Understanding how the "y" surname versions evolved is a bit more complex. Duibh Dhiorma is pronounced as Doo-Yearma which influences the anglicized Dyermond (Diermond) to become Dey-Ermond or De-Yermond. Deyermond is inscribed by the preparer for the 1748 will of James, Line A. Today most of his Y DNA descendants spell their name DeArmond or D'Armond. Alexander Deyarmond and his wife Letitia nee Barnhill emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1767. On the 1766 Protestant Householders List for Leck Parish, County Donegal, he is listed as Alex Diermond. Today, many if not most Nova Scotia surname descendants either pronounce or spell the surname as DeYarmond or DeyArmond and cite their paternal ancestry as French Huguenot. They consider their surname to be a variant of DeArmond, as do many also in the U.S.
The founder of the Presbyterian church of Scotland, John Knox, spent an early period of his life in exile in Geneva as friends with Jean Calvin, a French exile who founded the Calvinist Reform movement that took hold in much of France and parts of Europe and the British Isles. Knox was strongly influenced by Calvin's ideas when he returned to Scotland to begin a new religious sect, organized with presbyter governing principles championed by Calvin, that would be eventually become the state religion of Scotland. The Presbyterian faith was taken to Ulster during the 17th century Plantation era and was often referred to as the "French church", "Calvinists", "non- conformists" or "dissenters" by Anglicans who detested it's presence.
The late 17th century Huguenots who found refuge in Ireland were at first hosted by the Anglican church. They soon realized their Calvinist traditions were better suited to the Presbyterian faith and many changed attendance to it's churches instead. Most Presbyterian ministers today will give at least one sermon dedicated to the Huguenot experience from time to time. Although only marginally related, some Presbyterian churches in America would sponsor a DeMolay boys club which held a raucous initiation skit portraying the persecution of the French Knights Templar leader Jacques DeMolay before a Catholic court of inquisition. Although the early Presbyterian Church in America lost many of it's flock to the better resourced and more numerous Methodist and Baptist churches, the Church is still usually identified with Scottish and Scot-Irish descendants and still honors the French Huguenots who sought refuge in Lisburn, southwest of Belfast, and contributed their business and artisan skills to greatly enhance the manufacture of Irish linen.
Conclusion:
Did the DeArmond French origin myth begin with the 1824-5 visit of Lafayette to America? Did census takers and other government recording officials, after Lafayette's visit, assume that the Irish Gaelic pronunciations that they were occasionally hearing informants tell them, represented a "French" surname and enhanced the spellings to make them appear so? Did the shame of being associated with the newly immigrant Catholic Irish, influence surname bearers to go along with the French misinterpretation? Was this at first merely a family joke that grew legs of own and in succeeding generations become a basic tenet of family oral traditions? Was this why the Anglicized spelling versions came to be pronounced and spelled in an affected "French" manner also? Did the Presbyterian Church's early association with and honoring of Calvinism and the legacy of the French Huguenot refugees lay the groundwork for why so many different families, isolated from each other generations before, easily accepted belief in the myth of French Huguenot origin?
Perhaps there are more accurate answers, but these are certainly points to ponder.
