My Family Tree

Humphrey Dyment Jr. was born between 1817-1820, in Bradworthy, Devon, England, the son of Humphrey and Mary (Ashton) Dyment. Humphrey himself gave his date of birth as March 4 1818 on the 1901 census, and said he was age 64 on the 1881 census, but for the time, it seems an unusual delay that he wasn't baptized until March 1821, according to Bradworthy Parish Registers. This was a couple of years after the baptism of his brother William, who also claimed to be born in 1818, which might argue for a later date of birth. His obituary said he emigrated at the age of 12, and if the date of emigration was 1832 as Humphrey also stated, then he was born in 1820. Humphrey himself may have been unsure of the date.

He would have been in his early teens on his arrival in Canada. His father's obituary said the family emigrated in 1832, and both Humphrey and his brother Moses gave 1832 as their date of arrival on Prince Edward Island, in Meacham's Patron's Directory. Humphrey gave 1832 on the 1901 census. Brother William gave an earlier date, 1829.

Humphrey married twice, although some family trees give him a third wife, a Miss Lynch (no documentation found for this). His first wife was Barbara McArthur. They were married in May 1843 in Lot 16 Prince Edward Island by Rev. William MacGregor, who served as minister of the Richmond Bay Charge of the Presbyterian Church. On the marriage record, Humphrey was a bachelor, and Barbara was a widow. One undocumented source gives Barbara's date of birth as January 1815, and her parents as Malcolm McArthur and Ann MacDougall. If correct, this would make her the sister of Effie McArthur Dyment and Hugh McArthur, who also married into the Dyment family.

Humphrey and Barbara had two sons, Thomas E. (1845) and George Locke (1848); neither was in the PEI Baptismal Index, but marriage and death records gave their parents' names. A number of genealogies also give Humphrey and Barbara a daughter, Alice. The Alice described in early editions of the book The Dyments by Elmer Dyment was actually the daughter of Humphrey's son Thomas and his wife Mary Matilda Moore. If Humphrey and Barbara also had a daughter Alice, there is no record of her. It is worth noting that Alice was not a common name in the McArthur or Dyment families at this time, but it was a Moore family name.

Humphrey Dyment Jr. was on a list of tenants supplied by the agent to the landlord Seymour dated 1847, with an 82 acre farm. From early maps of Lot 13, this property was on the Northam Road. I have a theory that Humphrey obtained the property from Barbara's first husband, a Ramsay, but haven't yet proved this.

Around this time, Humphrey and his friend George Locke both joined the Sons of Temperance Lodge.

Barbara died before 1860. No gravestone or death record has been found for Barbara - perhaps she was buried beside her first husband.

After Barbara's death, Humphrey married again. He and his father signed a marriage bond on 16 March 1860, and Humphrey was married to Nancy MacDougall of Lot 12 on 3 May 1860 in the Bideford Bible Christian Chapel by John W. Butcher. Their marriage was noted in The Islander newspaper. Witnesses were Cornelius McArthur, John England, and James McDougall. This could be the Cornelius who later married Humphrey's youngest sister, Elizabeth. James was his neighbour, as well as his sister Sarah's husband, and Nancy's brother could be the James McDougald buried near Nancy and Humphrey in Bideford Cemetery.

Humphrey and Nancy had four children: Eli, James, Elizabeth Ann, and Mary Eleanor. Only James and Elizabeth Ann were in the PEI Baptismal Index as children of Nancy's; Eli's parents were recorded as Humphrey and Elizabeth. However, Humphrey and Nancy's names were on the marriage records for both Eli and Elizabeth. Mary Eleanor, wife of John Archibald Barlow, was listed on their gravestone and Humphrey was identified as her father in her death notice.

Humphrey's son George was named after George Locke of Port Hill, husband of Susan Ashton, and who worked in the local shipyards; he may have been related to the Dyments by marriage. If Humphrey had hoped that his son would receive an inheritance from George Locke, he was not so fortunate - after the death of Susan Ashton, the childless George married a widow with children and left his estate to them. Eli was possibly named after the Eli Dyment on early maps of Lot 14, but it is also possible that Biblical names were popular with the Bible Christians; James for Nancy's brother and his brother-in-law, James McDougall; Elizabeth Ann for both his and Nancy's sisters Elizabeth, and Nancy's mother; and Mary Eleanor after his mother and sister.

In the 1861 census, Humphrey was living in Lot 13 with his wife Nancy and infant son Eli. There was also one male between the ages of 5 and 16 in the household, and this was either George or Thomas. One member of the family was from England and the other three were natives of the Island. They were Methodists. The farm next to Humphrey and Nancy was occupied by James McDougall and his wife Sarah Dyment.

Humphrey's parents died in 1877 and 1878, and he was an executor for his father's will.

In the 1881 Census, Humphrey was age 64, a farmer, born in England; Nancy was 59, born on the Island. The other members of the household were Eli age 19, James age 18, Elizabeth Ann age 17, Mary Eleanor age 13, and Daniel C. McDougal age 9. Daniel could have been the grandson of Elizabeth MacDougall Dyment, or another relative of Nancy's.

Humphrey was a devoted Christian who took an active interest in religious matters, although his church affiliation changed. On the census form of 1861, all family members were identified as Methodists. On the 1881 census form, Nancy and the children were identified as Bible Christians, and Humphrey as a Baptist, the church he stayed with for the rest of his life. Grand-daughter Eleanor Marchbank recalled that Humphrey was a Deacon in the Baptist Church. With his friend Ivan Linkletter Humphrey began a community Sunday School that was held for many years in the old school house across the road from the Dyment homestead. Humphrey was said to have had an excellent singing voice.

A small log cabin was first erected near the roadway and replaced later by a larger house that was added onto over the years. In the 1891 census, the house was described as being a wood, 2 story house with 7 rooms. Maps from 1862 and the 1870s show that the farm was occupied by H., or Humphrey Dyment Jr. After the lands were taken over by the government in 1873 from the absentee landlords, Humphrey Dyment Jr. purchased the 75 acres by deed from the provincial government. In 1878, he started payments on a loan of 132 pounds. According to research done by David Finlayson, a deed dated November 21 1894 showed the Provincial government conveyed the 75 acres to Humphrey Dyment Jr.

Humphrey and Nancy's younger daughter Mary Eleanor married Archie Barlow in 1885. She died a few years later leaving two young sons, William and Henry. Elizabeth Ann went to the States, where she met and later married Henry James Williams, in 1887.

Nancy died 6 January 1889 in Northam, and was buried in the United Church Cemetery, Bideford, P.E.I. "In memory of Nancy McDougald, beloved wife of Humphery Dyment ...at 67."

Humphrey was age 73 and a widower in the next census living with sons Eli, age 30, and James, 29. James was married to Laura Bell McArthur. The schoolteacher was boarding with them.

Eli went to Maine, where he met and married Susan Poole.

A letter from Henry Ellis in Northam, dated 1900, said "Old Mr. Dymond is fine and smart this winter. He is able to look after the stock and water them at the brook and looks fat and well." As the oldest remaining male in his family, this is likely Humphrey he was referring to.

On September 10 1906 he turned over the farm to his son James. The text on the land conveyance was: "All goods and chattel to James in consideration of the natural love and affection which the said Humphrey Dyment has and bears towards the said James Dyment."

Humphrey died 17 May 1912, of old age, and was buried at the United Church Cemetery, Bideford, P.E.I as Humphery Dyment. The church record gave his age as 94. According to his obituary he had been in good health up until the three weeks before he died. He left three sons and one daughter: Thomas in Oregon, Eli in New Hampshire, James at home, and Mrs. Henry Williams (Elizabeth) in Massachusetts. The two children or wives who predeceased him were not mentioned, although his two surviving sisters were: Mrs. Eleanor Gorrill and Mrs. Susan McArthur. Most of the pall-bearers were nephews: Clarke, David and Levi Dyment, George Baglole, and Bannerman McDougall. Urban Paugh was also a pall-bearer.

This could be either Humphrey Sr., or Jr:

West Devon United Church
No further word regarding a Mission Premises appears in the records until meeting of Ebenezer Circuit on September 20, 1859, when the following persons were present: Brother John Butcher (Pastor), Francis Metherall, James Kinley, William Nichol, Humphrey Dyment, and Joseph Brooks. At that meeting the resolution appeared: "That this meeting approves of the price of the land purchased for the Mission property and the price being 14 pounds, 10 shillings." At this meeting too, a building committee was formed to make plans for the building of a Mission House. Then finally, at the December 14, 1859 meeting, the following trustees were appointed: Francis Metherall, William Fish, James Lidstone, Jeremiah Dalton, Sam Kinley, R. Brooks, and John Metherall. At the Christmas quarterly meeting in 1860, Resolution 6 stated that, "Each family connected with our congregation is expected to provide a seat after a given pattern, the seats to be free." At a meeting on March 5, 1864, a receipt signed by Humphrey Dyment recorded that: "The sum of six pounds, fourteen shillings and four pence being the third installment due me on the money borrowed on the Mission House was received from John Butcher, the pastor of the Ebenezer Circuit." Also in May 1860, Lot 10 was listed as having 29 members and 8 trial members, an increase from 10 members and 3 trial members in February of that year.

From PEI Ancestry: Dyment Humphrey (The Journal-Pioneer, 7 July 1998, p.4; and The Maple Leaf, June 1912, p. 7) d. Northam, Lot 13, P.E.I., c.May 1912, aged 94 years; born in Devonshire, England, he emigrated to P.E.I. from there when 12 years of age. He was survived by three sons, one daughter, and two sisters. Burial was at Bideford Methodist Cemetery, Lot 12.

compiled by Jane Dyment, from original manuscript of David Finlayson and other sources.