Saintonge had been a district which had played no small part in the history of the Huguenots; in the early part of the sixteenth century, “Saintonge and Aunis, with the flourishing seaport of La Rochelle, were, to a great extent, Protestant.” It had duly felt the stern measures of repression which had been meted out to it after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Into Saintonge had come the terrors of the dragonnades which had first dealt woe to the Protestants of Guyenne and Upper Languedoc. It has been said that from the diocese of Saintes (viz. Saintonge and Aunis) alone, during the years between the Revocation and 1695, one hundred thousand Protestants had been driven out (possibly this number is meant to include those who were only frightened out of the Reformed Religion: “Soldiers are strange apostles” as Queen Christina of Sweden wrote to the Chevalier de Terlon in Feb. 1686). And although, with the French historian who quotes this statement, we may consider its estimate an exaggeration made in error, the evidence, to the effect that the number of refugees from Saintonge was enormous, is incontrovertible”. (Herbert H. Sturmer , Some Poitevin Protestants in London, p. 48, 1896). Saintonge ia a historic French province located on the west-central Atlantic coast, corresponding to the modern-day Charente-Maritime department within the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.

The dictionary by Eugène and Émile Haag, “La France protestante”, organizes Dumas individuals categorically and chronologically by first name under the same surname. It does not establish proven family connections between paragraphs 1, 2, and 3. Because direct bloodlines are not verified, the following chart arbitrarily assigns a base number (1, 2, 3) to each major paragraph division in the text, then lists the subsequent individuals in order.

Branch 1: Early Isolated Protestants (Southern France & Geneva).

1: Du Mas (François) — Stoned to death at Toulon (1562).

Following the Massacre of Wassy in March 1562, religious violence rapidly spread across France. In mid-May of that year, Catholic authorities in Toulon targeted François du Mas for his Protestant faith. Du Mas was tied by his feet to the back of a horse or a cart. He was then dragged alive through the rough, cobblestone streets of Toulon. This initial torture was designed to humiliate him and inflict severe trauma, lacerations, and broken bones before he even reached the execution sit. Instead of an official executioner delivering a final blow, the adult Catholic guards and local authorities deliberately stepped back once they reached the town square. They left his broken, bound body in the open. The local adults instructed and encouraged the town’s young children (many under the age of 12) to finish him off. The children bombarded Du Mas with a barrage of heavy stones, rocks, and cobblestones. He died from massive blunt-force trauma to the head and body. After the children had stoned him to death, his body was thrown onto a bonfire and burned. In the context of the French Wars of Religion, burning a heretic’s corpse was a symbolic act meant to deny them a Christian burial and completely erase their presence from the community. In religious conflicts, authority figures use powerful language to paint the victim not as a human being, but as a dangerous spiritual contaminant or “devil”. Psychologists note that once a target is completely dehumanized, a child’s natural capacity for empathy is bypassed, making violence feel like a moral duty rather than a crime. Dehumanization of a rival preceeds murder by another name, the lesson of history repeated.

11: Du Mas (Jean) — Originally from Revel, admitted as an inhabitant of Geneva (1559). 12: Du Mas (Jean) — Surgeon and elder of the church of Montpellier (1565). 13: Du Mas (Antoine) — Merchant at Nîmes, admitted as an inhabitant of Geneva (1572).

Branch 2: Ministers and Pastors (Main Line of Castres & the Cévennes).

2: Dumas (Louis) — Minister at Florac (1562). 21: Dumas (Pierre) — Lawyer, regent at Castres, minister at Sorèze (died circa 1600). Husband of Anne de Geniès. Dumas (Jean) — Converted Jacobin friar from Limoges, published in La Rochelle (1603). 23: Dumas (Jacques) — Minister at Vébron (1637–1654). 2.4. Dumas (First name unstated) — Minister at Anjaquet (1637). 25: Dumas (Isaac) — Minister at Cassagnoles (1666–1672). 26: Dumas (Étienne) — Fugitive minister from Nîmes at the time of the Revocation. Husband of Suzanne Riboutier.

27: Index of contemporary namesake ministers (1585–1682): 271: Dumas at Pamiers (1585), 272: Dumas at Cros (1554), 273: Dumas at Monlières (1654); 274: Dumas at St-Flour and Monlezon (1654); 28: Dumas (Jean) — Refugee pastor from France, accepted by the Synod of Haarlem (1683), later left for Switzerland; 29 Dumas (Benjamin) — Gentleman from Dauphiné, refugee in Holland; 291: Dumas (Paul) — Son of the preceding, minister at St-Ferréol, candidate [proposant] in Geneva (1703)

Branch 3: Legal Professionals, Artisans, and Captives (Saintonge, Lower Languedoc & The Refuge).
3: Du Mas (Guillaume) — Deputy to the king’s prosecutor at St-Antonin, barred from office in 1626.
31: DU MAS (Jacques) — Lawyer, Lord [sieur] of La Chaussée, elder in Saintonge (1654).

Jacques Du Mas is recorded in 1654 as a lawyer, Lord (sieur) of La Chaussée, and an elder of the church of St-Claud and Champagné in the province of Saintonge. Records trace a family unit anchored by Jérémie Dumas and Susanne Faure of “St. Fort” (Saint-Fort-sur-Gironde), which is also located in Saintonge. Huguenot refugee patterns were strictly defined by regional solidarity; individuals rarely fled or traveled alone. They moved, survived, and intermarried within tight-knit networks from their home provinces. Due to the identical province, status, and timeline, he serves as the logical patriarch (father or uncle) of Jérémie

The Context of the Record: In 1654, the Catholic Crown began systematically auditing Protestant churches, demanding they show legal “titles” or proof of their right to hold worship services under the Edict of Nantes. Jacques, as an attorney (avocat) and Elder, was the legal representative who had to sign, defend, and submit the church’s local registry to royal commissioners to prevent his church from being torn down.

Because Jacques Du Mas was an avocat (lawyer) and held the title Sieur de La Chaussée, his name appears in regional civil records:

Property Deeds: La Chaussée was a small fiefdom or estate located near the border of Angoumois and Saintonge (near modern-day St-Claud). Property transfers, land boundaries, and tenant disputes handled by Jacques in the 1650s and 1660s are found in the Archives Départementales de la Charente (Series 3E, Notarial Minutes for the Angoulême/St-Claud sectors). Signatures on Marriage Contracts: As a prominent member of the local gentry, Jacques was frequently called upon by neighboring families to draft or witness elite Huguenot marriage contracts.

The Synods of Charente and Saintonge: The provincial synods (the governing councils of the Protestant churches) kept strict logs of who attended their annual meetings. Records from the Synod of Saintonge from the 1650s track the secular representatives sent by each parish. Jacques Du Mas is recorded as the traveling delegate representing the congregation of St-Claud.

The Protestant church of St-Claud was forcefully suppressed and ordered demolished by the Catholic authorities in the decades leading up to the 1685 Revocation. When a “temple” was destroyed, its archives were frequently burned in the town square.

As persecution intensified, Protestant avocats (lawyers) were legally barred from practicing law. Jacques would have been stripped of his court standing, meaning his name completely disappears from official royal court dockets after the 1660s or 1670s.

This systematic stripping of their wealth and legal status is exactly what forced his immediate heirs—Jérémie Dumas and Susanne Faure—to orchestrate the family’s flight out of Saintonge toward Switzerland, London, and eventually Virginia.

Jacques Du Mas was a member of a wider Du Mas family – “Léonard du Mas, son of Jacques and Marie de Bremond, was declared — in the inquiry ordered on 26 January 1647 by the Court of Aides of Bordeaux — to belong to the family of ‘very ancient gentlemen of this name, in fact, quality, reputation, and extraction, coming from the House of Ségur, holding the rank of gentleman of a high house, etc…’ A younger son of the House of Ségur, in Limousin, had indeed been granted the Château du Mas (de Manso) near Ségur as an appanage, and took its name, which his posterity adopted. (Archives of MM. du Mas de Puysac in Périgord).

Marie de Bremond was assisted at her marriage contract by her brother and sister-in-law, Armand de Bremond and Diane de Goulard, who guaranteed her dowry. Among the wedding gifts offered by Jacques du Mas was a very ancient box made of an elephant’s tooth and filled with jewelry and precious stones.”

The connection to Saintonge (historically spelled Xaintonge or Saintogne) comes directly from the de Bremond family mentioned in this text.Marie de Bremond belonged to the Famille de Bremond d’Ars, which is one of the most prominent, ancient noble families native to the Saintonge province in southwestern France. The family name comes from the Châtellenie d’Ars, located near Cognac, historically part of the Saintonge/Angoumois borderland. The text mentions that the inquiry took place in Bordeaux (the major regional parliament city for southwestern France) and notes that the du Mas family branched into Périgord (neighboring Saintonge).Marie’s marriage to Jacques du Mas represents a classic regional alliance between the high nobility of Saintonge (Bremond) and the high nobility of Limousin/Périgord (Ségur/du Mas).

St-Claud and Champagné are located in the Charente region, historically bordering or considered part of Saintonge and Angoumois. This is the home province of Marie de Bremond. The noble extraction inquiry for Léonard du Mas took place in 1647 in Bordeaux. This Huguenot church audit involving Jacques Du Mas took place just seven years later, in 1654. Jacques du Mas (father of Léonard) is described as a high-ranking noble derived from the House of Ségur, who gives a luxury ivory box filled with jewels as a wedding gift. Jacques Du Mas, Lord of La Chaussée, is specifically described as an avocat (lawyer). In 17th-century France, high noblemen (noblesse d’épée, or nobility of the sword) typically did not practice law or act as practicing attorneys, as commercial professions could forfeit their noble status (dérogeance).

However, families often split branches: a senior branch remained strictly landed nobility, while younger sons (puînés or cadets) often studied law, became avocats, and bought smaller lordships (sieur de…) like La Chaussée to enter the judicial nobility (noblesse de robe). Therefore, the lawyer Jacques (1654) is highly likely a cousin/direct relative who used his legal training to serve his community.

311: Dumas (Jérémie) — Born in Saintonge, likely near Saint-Fort-sur-Gironde. He married Susanne Faure (from the prominent local Faure kinship network). Jérémie likely died in France or during the initial disruptions, prompting his sons to flee together.

3111: Dumas (Jean) — Fled Saintonge with his brother Jérémie (3112) in the summer of 1687. Tracked through Lausanne, Switzerland (August 1687) and Frankfurt, Germany (September 1687) by refugee relief registers. He reached London and married Marguerite de Gentillot on 24 January 1691 at the Huguenot Church of La Patente de Soho, explicitly documenting his parents (Jérémie Dumas & Susanne Faure) and hometown (“St. Fort” in Saintonge). The French-language register entry explicitly states that Jean Dumas is the son of Jeremie Dumas and Susanne Faure, and notes their hometown as “St. Fort” in the province of Saintonge, France.

Before reaching London, the family’s escape route out of France was documented by European relief committees tracking Huguenot refugees.Lausanne, Switzerland: Court or church assistance records place Jean Dumas and his brother Jeremie in Lausanne in August 1687.Frankfurt, Germany: Consistory and refugee relief registers place the brothers in Frankfurt am Main just a month later, in September 1687.These records explicitly group them with other displaced persons fleeing from Saintonge, France

The final leg of the family’s journey is verified by British colonial documents.The Record: The passenger manifest of the ship Mary and Ann, which departed London and landed at Jamestown, Virginia, on 31 July 1700.The Evidence: This list explicitly records Jerome Dumas among the “French Refugees” sent to settle land that became Manakintown. This links the American line directly back to the refugees named in the London and continental records.

3112: Dumas (Jérémie) — Fled France alongside his brother Jean; tracked through the Lausanne and Frankfurt refugee relief networks in August and September 1687. He was synonomous with Dumas (Jerome) — The Virginia immigrant. Born in Saintonge; fled France as a child or infant following the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

*1681: Born in Saint-Fort (Saintonge, France) to Jérémie Dumas and Susanne Faure.
*He would have been around 4–6 years old when the family had to flee in September 1687: Fleeing with his older brother Jean (who was old enough to be tracked on foot), the young Jérémie travels through the refugee relief networks in Lausanne and Frankfurt).
*1691: He is living in London with his brother Jean, witnessing Jean’s wedding at La Patente de Soho.
*July 1700: Seizing the opportunity for free land offered to French Protestants in the colonies, he boards the refugee ship Mary and Ann. He arrives at the James River in Virginia and settles near Manakin Town as Jerome/Jeremiah Dumas.
1702: He married Unity (maiden name not known) in New Kent County, Virginia, officially anchoring the Dumas lineage in American history.

October 18, 1685 – King Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, ending French protection for Protestants, outlawing their worship, destroying their churches, and triggering a mass exodus of skilled Huguenots to other countries.

*Outlawed all Protestant church services and schools.
*Ordered the forced baptism of newborn babies as Catholics.
*Gave Protestant pastors a short time to convert or leave the country.
*Banned regular Protestant laypeople from emigrating, though hundreds of thousands fled illegally.

The Heugenot diaspora is often mentioned in passing when giving an account of such as Jerome Dumas, without mentioning the horrors he was escaping, and the everyday fears he faced as a dehumanized person.

The “Widow Faure” (recorded in original French ship manifests as La vefve Faure) was a French Huguenot refugee who arrived in Virginia on July 31, 1700, aboard the ship Mary and Ann. She was one of the foundational settlers of the Manakintown Huguenot colony along the James River.

Mary Ann Chastain.She was the widow of Daniel Isaac Faure. Her husband died either shortly before their escape from France or during their temporary refuge in England, leaving her to lead her family across the Atlantic alone. Her children included:

Pierre (Peter) Faure: (Later Americanized to Peter Ford). He became a prominent member of the Manakintown community.
Jean (John) Faure: Traveled alongside his brother and mother.

As proven by the London Soho church records, Jerome’s mother was Susanne Faure. The Faure and Dumas families were deeply intertwined back in the old country. When Jerome boarded the Mary and Ann at roughly 19 years old, he did not travel as an isolated youth; he was placed directly under the protection of his maternal kinship network, sailing alongside Jean Faure and his aunt-by-marriage, the Widow Faure.

The connection to Lucas Ford directly mirrors the Huguenot Faure/Dumas migration pipeline. It represents the Anglicisation of the French name Faure to Ford over generations in Virginia.

1. Pierre (Peter) Faure (1675–1745), who arrived in Virginia around 1700 and settled at Manakintown.Generation.
1.1. Jacques (James) Faure/Ford Sr. (ca. 1708–1785), who was born in Henrico County, Virginia, and later moved to Buckingham County.
1.1.1. Boaz Faure/Ford Sr. (1749–1810) of Buckingham County, Virginia. Boaz was a patriot who stayed in Virginia, but his children joined the westward migration.
1.1.1.1. Luke (Lucas) Ford (1774–1821). He migrated from Buckingham County, Virginia, and settled permanently in Green County, Kentucky, alongside fellow Huguenot families like the Chaudoins.

1. Jacques Lois Faure, 1603-1707, m. Ann Elizabeth Bondurant, 1602-1682, of La Rochelle, Normandy.
1.1. Isaac Jean Faure, b. Jan. 1, 1624/5, in La Rochelle, m. (in 1646) Mary Ann Thibaut (1631-1702), dau. of Jean Thibaut (1610-1689) and Perrette Mignot (1613-1697).
1.1.1. Daniel Isaac Faure, b. 20 September 1647 in La Rochelle, m. Marie Ann Chastain (1652-1700) in 1670.

To be continued, showing the Dumas link to a descendant of Major William Harris, and a member of that family who m. Lucas Ford. French Protestant kinship group allied to a Shropshire/Virginia one.

FOOTNOTE
While Eugène and Émile Haag’s “La France protestante” lists these branches separately because a precise parent-child bloodline was not legally proven in their 19th-century sources, clear and compelling geographical corridors connect Branch 3 directly to both Branch 1 and Branch 2.

1. The Link Between Branch 3 and Branch 1: The Revel–Lauragais Connection. Branch 3 features Jacques Du Mas (31), the legal patriarch in Saintonge, and Abraham Dumas (32), a weaver from Mayencoule in the Cévennes.The Geographic Link: Branch 1 includes Jean Dumas (11), recorded in 1559 as being from “Revel au pays de Loraguoys” (Revel in the Lauragais region). The Historical Corridor: Revel sits on the absolute western edge of the Languedoc-Cévennes Huguenot crescent. Historically, the Dumas families of the Cévennes mountains used the plain of Lauragais (via Revel) as a trading and transit corridor to move goods, textiles, and families westward toward Bordeaux and the Saintonge coast.

The Link Between Branch 3 and Branch 2: The Castres–Sorèze–St-Antonin Corridor. This is the most direct, undeniable legal and geographic connection. Branch 3 begins with Guillaume Du Mas (3), a high-ranking legal officer (deputy to the king’s prosecutor) in St-Antonin. The Geographic Link: Branch 2 is heavily anchored by Pierre Dumas (21), the prominent legal scholar (“bachelor of laws”), academic regent of Castres, and minister at Sorèze. The Legal Network: St-Antonin-Noble-Val, Castres, and Sorèze form a tight triangle of major Protestant strongholds in the modern Tarn and Tarn-et-Garonne departments. In the 17th century, these cities shared a single, highly integrated Protestant legal and academic network. A “bachelor of laws” from the academy of Castres (like Pierre in Branch 2) would naturally have his close relatives, siblings, or sons working as attorneys, lawyers, and prosecutors in neighbouring royal seats like St-Antonin (like Guillaume in Branch 3 and Jacques in Branch 31).

1. The Limousin–Saintonge Migratory Axis; Branch 2 notes that the academic Pierre Dumas (21) was originally from Chalus in the Limousin region.The Geographic Link: Chalus sits right on the historical border where the Limousin region transitions downward toward the Atlantic coast via Angoumois and Saintonge (the home of Jacques 31). The Refugee Route: When the Wars of Religion heavily disrupted the interior of France (like Limoges and Chalus), Protestant families systematically migrated down the rivers toward the maritime safety of Saintonge or southwest toward the protection of the Kingdom of Navarre.

by m stanhope, copyright B.T. Shannon 2026