My Family Tree

Sarah was born on October 6 1832 in Port Hill, Lot 13, daughter of Humphrey Dyment and Mary Ashton. She was their first daughter born on the Island, and hers was the only Island baptismal record found for this family. Although she was baptized in the Church of England, Richmond Parish, this did not signal a return to the established church by the family. Rather, it reflected the welcoming nature of the Church of England to all faiths on the Island, at a time when few churches had been built, and ministers from other faiths were rarely in the area.

Most Dyment family histories say Sarah married John Colwill, the son of Thomas and Prudence (Yeo) Colwill, and died without children. I couldn't find a record of this marriage. However, there was a record for an earlier marriage between Sarah Dymond and James MacDougald in the PEI Marriage Registers, which took place on 31 March 1853, with James Craswell, Justice of the Peace in St. Eleanor's, performing the ceremony. One witness was Charles McDougald, and the other was George Locke - and one witnesses at Mary Ann Dyment's wedding was also George Locke, whose wife was an Ashton.

Groom's Name John Calwill
Groom's Residence Lot 13
Groom's Status Bachelor
Bride's Name Sarah McDougald
Bride's Residence Lot 13
Bride's Status Widow/Widower
Source RG19/s3/ss5: Marriage bonds, 1868

According to the PEI Baptism Index, James MacDougald and his wife Sarah had a son, William James, born in 1854 and baptized in O'Leary (records now with United Church); on 1 February 1864; and James McDougal and Sarah had a daughter Mary Elizabeth, also baptized in O'Leary. In the 1861 census, there was a James McDougal in Lot 13, next to the entry for Humphrey Dyment Jr. There is one boy between the ages of 5 and 15 in the household. All members of the household had been born on the Island.

In Hutchinson's Prince Edward Island Directory as transcribed on The Island Register, both James Macdougall and Humphrey Diamond were living in Northam, Lot 13 in 1864.

James MacDougald/MacDougall could not be found in the 1881 census. There was a gravestone for a James MacDougald, who died in 1867, in the Bideford Cemetery. Next to this grave is the gravestone for Sarah Colwell, wife of John. Also nearby is the gravestone for Nancy McDougald Dyment.

A record was found for the marriage of Sarah MacDougald, a widow, and John Colwill on July 30 1868. Witnesses were Humphrey and Mary Dyment. This marriage was reported in a local newspaper:
The Islander – Aug 21, 1868
Married: At Northam, on the 30th July, by Mr. H.A. Newcombe, B.C.M., Mr. John Colwell, to Mrs. McDougald, both of Lot 13.

There is a gravestone for Sarah, wife of John Colwill, in the Bideford Cemetery that fits with her year of birth (died January 31, 1878 at the age of 45). It is beside the gravestones for Humphrey Dyment Sr. and Mary Ashton.

John Colwill was married later that year to Elizabeth Cann. On his second marriage record in 1878, he identified himself as a widower. In the 1881 census, John was living with his second wife and two young children. There is no evidence of children from his marriage to Sarah, or from Sarah's first marriage, in this household. The Colwill farm, on maps dated 1878, was situated next to Humphrey Dyment. The Colwill and Dyment families remained connected. John Colwill and Mary Cann's son Charles Louis Colwill, born 4-Dec-1878, married Elizabeth A. MacArthur, sister of Laura Belle McArthur Dyment and daughter Lena Colwill, born 27-Feb-1887, married Lewis Paynter, a grandson of Mary Ann Dyment Wickett.