Derry, for D'Arry or D'Airy.
Desha. (Fr. Deshayes.) A grandson of Governor Desha of Kentucky, visiting many years ago the Valley of Wyoming, the ancestral home-place of the Desha family, found a venerable scion of the pioneer stock, who invariably spelt his name Deshay. Fields, woods, hedges, etc., give surnames to families. In the following line from an old French writer we find two family names, or at least words familiarly used as such:—On lui dressoit des sentiers au travers des hayes de leurs bois. The name Desha is accented on the second syllable, in Kentucky, this doubtless being the original pronunciation as implied by the ancestral orthography—"Deshay." Beyond the Seine in old Paris; beyond the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg St. Germain, near the fortifications, there stands—or did stand in the closing quarter of the last century—a block of antique villas. One of these was known as the Villa Deshayes. Captain Deshayes, of the French man-of-war Le Grand Joseph, made a gallant fight against two British frigates during the Colonial wars.
General Joseph Desha, after a brilliant military and political career, became Governor of Kentucky in 1824. His administration (says Collins, the old Whig historian) was strong and efficient. The message of Governor Desha of Kentucky, November 7, 1825, says Professor W. G. Sumner of Yale, "deserves attentive reading from any one who seeks to trace the movement of decisive forces in American political history."
Judge Bledsoe (the father-in-law of Governor Desha) is reported to have said that "Desha commenced his career with as sound a set of politics as any man in Kentucky, but it was his misfortune never to change them."
Even Desha's enemies concede that he made a brilliant and impressive appearance upon the hustings. His handsome person and carriage contributed much to this effect. He is described in that Hudibrastic skit, "The Stumpiad" (1816):
"With chapeau-bras and good broad sword,
And fine as any English lord."
(Vide sketch and portrait of Desha in No. 18 of the Publications of The Filson Club: Battle of the Thames.)
Devereux.
Devine. William le Devin, Normandy, 1180-95.