This post discusses points of interest concerning the surname variant spelled as Dearment or DeArment. The variant was designated by Roscoe Carlisle d'Armand in his book "DeArmond Families of America"(1954) as line F, which he listed as John DeArment of Westmoreland County, PA. The "Oxford Dictionary of American Surnames" notes: "Dearment, a variant of Irish Dearmond". Roscoe noted that several instances of the surname spelling occurred in western Pennsylvania (during the early part of the 19th century), that he assumed were closely related, but was unable to further trace. The surname variant is only a small fraction as numerous as DeArmond, but is still widespread in North America.
John Diermond of Fersalmore?
Roscoe arbitrarily determined the progenitor of some of his immigrant lines to be John Diermond, who was recorded on the 1766 List of Protestant householders of Fersalmore, Leck Parish, County Donegal, Ireland. The only written source that he referred to in his book for his paternity determinations is a reference on page 302 where he writes "John DeArment, son of John Diermond of Fersalmore, Parish of Leck, County Donegal, North Ireland." Then on the bottom of the page, he includes a footnote #1: "From a pencil notation on the flyleaf of the DeArment-Minnis Family reunion Register, Crawford County, Penna., 1901-1904". It apparently was not known as to when and who penciled the note, but there is an obvious clue to what their source of information was. Whoever wrote the flyleaf notation, was only familiar with the 1766 census misspelled version of the place name and did not know the name is spelled in Donegal as Farsetmore (Gaelic: Fearsaid mhor), a townland of 125 acres and site of the last large scale battle (1567) between the clan families of Ulster (and Ireland) before total British hegemony over the entire Isle in 1603.
The register notation was highly likely to have been merely an uninformed supposition by a more recent amateur family genealogist who didn't realize, that except for tiny Leck Parish, all 1766 census records for Donegal and Ulster had been destroyed in a 1922 Dublin insurrection fire. Certainly, at that time there were many other clan paternal surname line descendants in Donegal and other counties of Ulster for whom no written record survived, whom could have just as well have been the progenitors of the various immigrant lines. Note that on the 1796 Flax growers bounty lists for Donegal there were numerous anglicized surname variants suggesting many likely family choices to chose from for possible DeArmond/DeArment variant O'Duibhdhiorma ancestors.
John Cook Dearment of Crawford County, Pennsylvania
Although I know of other instances of use of the Dearment spelling by families in Pennsylvania descended from different ancestors, the primary source of the surname spelling derives from a John Cook DeArment of Crawford County, Pennsylvania who was born in Ireland about 1780. Recently I received from a patrilineal surname descendant of his, copies of three pages of the opening of a booklet about a Moses Logan, authored by his grandson Milton Logan in 1926.
Fundamentally, the story relates oral tradition supposedly told to Milton by his grandfather about his experiences during his youth in Donegal and later his activity in the year prior to the failed 1798 Irish Rebellion against the Anglican English by both Presbyterian Ulster Scots and native Catholic Irish, referred to as the "the United Irish". The story included involvement in the murder of a "British officer, Captain" Hamilton along with the unintended shooting death of a minister's wife.
The Logan story details how Moses fled from arrest and hanging, by stowing away aboard a ship bound for New York from which he had further hair raising experiences. Finally in New York harbor, his "mate" John Dearment is mentioned, without giving any detail as to how their friendship came to be. Eventually the two journey together to Crawford County, Pennsylvania where they finally settle. My personal assessment of the story is that there may be some fictional elaboration added by either Moses or Milton, but on the whole, the story line is historically and location wise specifically correct and I would accept the overall timeline and particulars as essentially accurate. Fundamental elements of the story are supported by a DeArment family source entirely unrelated to the Logan version.
Screenshots from a YouTube video about the hauntings of Sharon Rectory. The original stone walled Rectory is in the distant right of the building photo. The right photo purports to show the ghost of the murdered wife.
Also supporting the story is the historical record of the murder victim in Donegal. He was in fact William Hamilton a noted minister and magistrate who was also esteemed for his work in various scientific pursuits. Although a descendant of Presbyterian Ulster Scots himself, he was widely known for his British and Anglican sympathies. This put him at risk from the local population of Presbyterians and Catholics, many of whom were members of the United Irish and bitterly resented the harsh discrimination practices of the British Anglicans against them. His own parish was near Lough Swilly. While traveling by boat on the Lough, he took refuge ashore in another pastor's rectory where his presence became known and was converged upon by an angry mob intent on taking his life which they succeeded in doing, and by unintentional mistake, also the resident pastor's wife.
The 1796 Flax Growers list for Donegal (shown above) show several men having Logan and anglicized Duibhdhiorma surnames living within a ten mile distance of the Sharon Rectory where the murders occurred (see map shown below). Only circumstantial timing and association evidence suggests that John Cook Dearment and/or my own ancestor William Dearment were present and may have took part in Hamilton's murder. Even mild crowd excitement can quickly escalate into mob violence, and participation can stir ordinarily peaceful persons to do regrettable acts. Several different first hand and second hand accounts of the murder on 2 March, 1797 vary in details but concur basically with the Logan version. Sharon Rectory where the murders took place is today known as one of Ireland's infamous haunted houses where the ghost of the murdered wife reputedly still appears.
Evidently the informant(s) from the Crawford County descendants of John Cook DeArment contacted by Roscoe were not aware of the Logan paper, as he did not mention the story and has John Cook DeArment accompany his parents from Donegal, Ireland as a small child long before 1798. I took keen interest in this story because my own immigrant ancestor William Dearment likely left Ireland also within a similar time frame.
In Roscoe's book on page 304, footnote #2, in which he quotes the 1850 U.S. census for the entry of John D Armah and family of Crawford County, PA., Roscoe correctly identifies this entry as John Cook DeArment, son of John DeArment, line F. The spelling of "D Armah" was likely the phonetic interpretation of the census taker upon hearing the family informant use the Gaelic pronunciation of their surname. It appears that he was mistakenly given the impression or himself assumed that the name was of French origin which commonly occurred among Dearmond variants after the celebrated return tour of America by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. Only afterwards do pseudo French spellings such as DeArmond or D'Armond begin to be recorded. Previous to 1850, the Crawford County surname was recorded in 1840 as "Dearment". Today, nearly all surname descendants of John D Armah Sr. pronounce and spell their surnames as DeArment.
Back in Inishowen in northeast Donegal, when speaking in Gaelic, native Irish pronounced their surname as Dee-Arma or Dee-Erma which had evolved from Doo-Yearma, spelled Dui(bh) Dhiorma in Gaelic. Dearment was just one of many anglicized variants of Irish given name Diarmuid (pronounced Der-mid) or Diarmait (Der-mitt/Der-mott) which Anglo-Irish recording officials in turn used to anglicize Duibhdhiorma.
Just below is a layered composite of several pages of Y DNA matches from my personal account at Family Tree DNA (ftdna.com) that I created to demonstrate the variety of surnames either tested positive or highly probable to be positive for Y DNA SNP marker FGC4113 indicating paternal descent from the Irish clan of O'Duibhdhiorma, which includes a descendant of John Cook DeArment.
William Dearment of Indiana County, PA
My own well documented Irish immigrant ancestor William Dearment most likely emigrated from Clonleigh Parish of County Donegal before 1800. He appears on the 1820 Indiana County, PA, U.S. census above, with an apparent brother or cousin James Derment listed above. James was never again recorded in Indiana County and his fate is unknown to me, although I matched with autosomal DNA along with other distant paternal line cousins to a lady in Texas with a Derment ancestor.. At least two other surname men appear to have lived in Brush Valley (Wheatfield) Township among my ancestor's family during the 19th century who were not William's sons. Perhaps they influenced the extensive family of William's descendants to use today's Deyarmin and lesser known Deyarmie or DeArmey (spelled D'Armee on 1840 census shown below).
The history of Erie and Presque Isle during the war of 1812-14 is a harrowing story of dispirited men stationed in a disease infested environment with poor sanitation and food. Most were not supplied with any weapons, while critical military and naval supplies were withheld and rerouted or transferred to other military facilities by more senior commanders intent to insure their own success. Against these almost insurmountable odds, Oliver Perry was able to organize the building of enough ships in time to take advantage of a respite in the British blockade of Presque Isle. His men were able to perform a herculean task moving ships and cannon across a massive sandbar and into Lake Erie. With a trained skeletal backbone of veterans from the famed USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), he then sailed west to Put-In-Bay to blockade and then narrowly but soundly defeat the British fleet on September 10, 1813. Afterwards, he sent the famous message "We have met the enemy and they are ours!".
Roscoe cited those DeArments of Crawford county who served at Erie and Presque Isle during the War of 1812. One Dearment record Roscoe purposely ignored, was that of my ancestor. Several more listings of earlier spelling versions of the DeArment and DeArmond variant surnames can found in the militia company muster roles of the Pennsylvania Archives collection for the War of 1812. One individual's name, who was drafted into the Huntingdon County military marched to and stationed at Erie under Captain William Morris in the spring of 1813, appears on three different muster role lists for the same company. He was my Irish immigrant 3x great grandfather, William Dearment, for whom I can well document his life and my linage back to him. In mid August of 1813, some event or unwelcome news apparently persuaded several men from the company to desert, including my ancestor. Considering that his wife and numerous children were without his presence and support, no doubt his decision to desert was based on concern for their welfare. My family has a considerable history of honorable wartime naval service and combat, including my own. In the circumstances that my ancestor faced, and considering that four of our recent Presidents chose to avoid Vietnam or military service, I feel his action was understandable.
