According to this website   http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Bess#ixzz4EuLshAlD
the BESS surname was 
Recorded as in England and Scotland as Bess, Besse, Bessey, Biss, Bisset, Bissett, and in France and Belgium as Bes, Bess, Besse, Bex, Bez, with diminutives including Besseau, Besset, Bessey, Bezou, Bezout, and collectives such as Bessiere, Bessire, Besseyre, Bessede, and possibly others such as Bessett, this is usually a surname of French origins. If so it is topogrphical or perhaps locational, and describes a person who lived by a bes, meaning a birch tree or birch wood, or from a village of the same name. According to several authoritive dictionaries of surnames it is from the region known as Provencal, although "bes" ultimately derives from the Roman (Latin) word "bettius". However there is also some confusion in the British Isles and perhaps occasionally on the Continent, with the popular shortform of the famous English female name Elizabeth, of which Bess or Besse were popular nickname forms, or even in some cases the Scottish surname Bisset or Bissett which is also found as Besset and Bessett. It is unclear when the surname was first recorded, but in France where few recordings have survived from before the famous or infamous Revolution of 1792, when most records were burnt. Those that did survive include Jen Besset at Loromontezey, Meurthe-et -Moselle, on December 13th 1592, Antoine Bes, at Montauban, Tarn-et-Garone, on December 22nd 1658, and in England Anne Bess at the church of St Mildred Poultrey, city of London, on March 3rd 1582, and Abraham Bessiere at Threadneedle Street French church, also city of London, on January 17th 1630, and Francis Bessie at St James Dukes Place, Westminster, on November 21st 1682. However the earliest recording of all is believed to be that of Henricus Byset, who witnessed a charter by King William of Scotland, and known as "The lion", in 1193.

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"Sunlight dances through the leaves,
soft winds stir the sighing trees,
...lying in the warm grass,
feel the sun upon your face,

Elven songs and endless nights,
sweet wine and soft relaxing lights
Time will never touch you
here in this enchanted place,
 
I’ve traveled now for many miles,
It feels so good to see the smiles
of friends who never left your mind
when you were far away,

From the golden light of coming dawn
'till the twilight when the sun is gone,
We treasure every season
and every passing day,

We feel the coming of a new day,
Dark gives way to light a new way,
Stop here for a while, until the world,
the world calls you away,

Yet you know I’ve had the feeling
standing with my senses reeling,
This is the place to grow old
'till I reach my final day,

You feel there’s something calling you,
You’re wanting to return
to where the misty mountains rise
and friendly fires burn,

A place you can escape the world
where the dark lord cannot go,
Peace of mind and sanctuary by loud water’s flow"...

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William Bess (1776-circa 1865) was born in Virginia most likely in Rich Patch which was then Botetourt County, but is now Alleghany County. He is believed to have been the son of the French-Indian War and Revolutionary War veteran, Christopher Bess (1734-1782). On 23 APR 1799, he married Rebecca Hamilton who was born in Pennsylvania in 1782 and was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Hamilton who granted surety at their wedding. William acquired the trade of local shoemaker as identified in early census records, but it is not known where he apprenticed (if at all) to learn this skill, however it is possible that he might have learned this trade while serving in Captain John Pitzer’s Company of Riflemen of the 4th Regiment of Virginia Militia during the War of 1812. William Bess' name was very scarcely recorded in the court records in the counties of Botetourt and Alleghany and most of his children were adults, no longer residing in his household by the time the Federal Census started listing the names of children.

He was the only male of his generation to reside in the Botetourt/Alleghany region. The statistical censuses of 1810-1830 support that William and Rebecca (Hamilton) Bess parented the following children:

1) Hamilton Bess was probably named after his mother’s maiden surname, born in Rich Patch, VA in 1803, married Rebecca King on 28 JAN 1823 in Alleghany County, VA and died circa 1888.
2) Henry Bess, born in 1805, married Eleanor “Nellie” Oiler and died in 1863.
3) John Bess, born circa 1809, married 1) Jane Humphries on 11 JUL 1836, 2) Elizabeth Gillenwater on 21 MAY 1848.
4) Rebecca Bess, born circa 1809 and married John Oiler.
5) William Bess, Jr., born in 1814, married Mary A. Moses and died circa 1885 probably in Mason County, WV. William, Jr. was a shoemaker just like William, Sr.
6) Christopher Bess, born in 1816, married Mariah Moses 09 OCT 1837 in Montgomery County, VA and died before 1843.
7) Nash Leslie Bess, born on 02 APR 1819, married Mary Ann Lane on 21 OCT 1840 in Montgomery County, VA and died on 30 SEP 1875 at Sissonville (Kanawha County), WV.
8) Frances Bess, born in 1834

There exists only a single Putnam County, WV Death Certificate of one of his children, Nash Leslie Bess that links William Bess to one of his children via a legal paper trail and that is where the Y-DNA of a direct paternal descendant of Nash Leslie Bess will be compared to the paternal descendants of his other male siblings. Given the aforementioned court record identifying William Bess as the father of Nash Leslie Bess, that paternal descendant participant's "most distant ancestor" is being considered William Bess (1776-circa 1865).