Like Many other French names, unpronounceable to English and Dutch tongues, this name has undergone various changes in spelling. In the Dutch church baptismal records it is always written Du Secoy and Du Secay. In the county records, often copied by careless or illiterate clerks, the name is spelled in the following different ways: Dessoway, Dessway, Desway, Disachay, Disasway, Disaway, Disosway, Dissasway, Dissosway, Dissossway, Dissoway, Du Secoy, Duessossway, Deusosway, Dusachoy, Dusosoy, Dusoseay, Dusosway, Dussoway, DusSouchoy, dusuchoy, Dusway, etc.
The name of du Sauchoy is found among the Huguenot families who left France before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Marc du Sauchoy, the progenitor of the family in America, who was born in 1626, was a native of Amiers, Picardy, France, from the Valley of the Somme. The lords du Sauchoy came from the House of Clermont, in the Beauvaises; one of them is known to have been with the Duke of Normandy at the Conquest. Many Huguenots of Picardy were sentenced to banishment or imprisonment. Among the number was Marc du Sauchoy. The nearness of the low countries offered facilities of escape and 30 families made their home in Harlem and from Holland, subsequently crossing the ocean, founded the new Harlem, on Manhattan Island, then a wilderness.
In 1655, after iving two or three years in Holland, Marc made his first voyage to New Netherland; sufficiently pleased with the country, he decided to make it his future home. He returned to Leyden, Holland and married March 11, 1657 to Elizabeth Rossignol or Rossignil, daughter of Guilliame Rossignil, and on April 2 again he sailed from Amsterdam for Manhattan on the ship "Draetaat". In 1657 he bought a farm in Brooklyn and on April 10, 1661 transferred his church connection from New Amsterdam to htis place. On July 2, 1675 we find his name as purchaser of a "book of Martyrs" and others from the estate of Jean le Comte for 80 guilders. For 20 years 1657-77, he was a framer and miller in Long Island, Harlem and Fordham. In Nov. 1679 he bought lots on ?aarn's hook but sold them "presently". On June 7, 1683 he and his wife took letters from the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam to the French church newly formed under Rev. Pierre Daille. He moved to Staten Island April 5, 1684, owned 255 acres there and was still living there oct. 1, 1706, aged 80 yrs.
The fact that the original emigrants were Huguenots, is evidence of the undivided piety, and iti is said that during the War of the Revolution, though surrounded by enemies, they were firm in their adherence to the cause of their country.
There are several of the name mentioned in the county records as having pruchased land as early as 1687. A portion of the land originally purchased by this family (500 acres) and the stone housse erected upon it was still owned and occupied by some of the descendants in 1877.
Elizabeth (Rossignol) du Sauchoy, wife of Marc, was referred to in the Dutch church records as Lysbeth Nacstegaal, the Dutch word for Rossignol, or Nightengale.
Children of Marc & Elizabeth:
1. Nadeleine du Sauchoy bap. 1658, m: 1671 Martin Hardewyn
2. Marcus du Sauchoy christ. 1659, m: Jannettie ????. will prov. Jan 27, 1714.
4. Jean b. 1665
5. Marye b. 1669
The name Dusosway as a first name apears at least eight times in the Dye
family so ther is a strong possibility that the du Sauchoy/ Disosway family
is one of the maternal Dye lines, although no proof is know at present.
Annals of Staten Isl., Clute
Staten Isl & Its People, Long & Davis
History of Harlem, Riker
History of Richmond County, NY, Bayles
New York Genealogical Magazine
Register of the Dutch Church on Staten Island
Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, Stillwell
Ancestry & Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia
Kathy Smith Cincinnati, Ohio