From The Settlement of Prince Edward County by Nick and Helma Mika. Transcribed here by Linda Herman

Pioneers of Prince Edward County 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

JOHN DEMOREST

Ancestors were from Bordeaux and Picardy regions of France. 

The ancestors of John Demorest originated in Bordeaux and Picardy. Among them were eminent theologians who greatly influenced the Huguenots in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of them, John de Morest took his wife and family to Holland early in the 17th century. John's son, David, left Amsterdam for America on the Bontica in 1663 with is wife, the former Maria Schin and his three sons, John, David and Samuel.

Guillaume Demorest, son of John, was born on February 16th 1769. He lived in Dutchess County until 1790, when he came to Canada. He taught school in Adolphustown, where he married Jane Davis in 1793. In 1794, Guillaume and Jane moved to Sophiasburgh on Lots 38 and 39 in the first Concession. Here a village sprang up which was named Demorestville.

Being of an industrious nature, and a deeply religious man, Guillaume over the years built a grist mill, a sawmill, a linseed mill and a church. Guillaume presented both the church and the lot on which it was built to the Methodists, even though he himself was a conscientious Presbyterian. Later on in life, Guillaume joined the Methodist denomination, and was considered to be one of its finest lay preachers for a great number of years.

After the passing of his first wife in 1813, Guillaume married Hannah Burdette of Kingston, and raised five children: David, Mary, Ann, Margaret and Rachel. He died in Demorestville in 1849.