By Yolande St-Arneault
Échos génealogiques
Société de Généalogie des Laurentides
Volume XVII, #1, spring 2001
Translated by Lorelei Maison
Rockwell, May 2002
On 15 February 1649 the
little colony was in shock. Abraham Martin, age 60, a companion of Champlain
and the head of a large and respected family was thrown in prison. The
accusation: he had forfeited the honor of a strapping young girl of 16
[translator's note: statutory rape?]. Certainly it would be said that this old
pig Abraham had debauched a fine 'young thing.' Three months later his wife
gave him his ninth, and last, child.
Abraham Martin arrived in
Quebec in the summer of 1617--probably making the voyage in the same ship as
Louis HÉBERT. His family accompanied him: his wife Marguerite LANGLOIS
[translator's note: Jette[1]
gives their date of marriage c 1620 'in France'], her sister Francoise and
Francoise's husband Pierre DESPORTES. This couple would have a daughter Helene,
who would become the goddaughter of Quebec's founder. This same Helene would
marry, as a second husband, Medard Chouart des Groseillers, the colorful
explorer, fur trader and co-founder of the Hudson's Bay Company.
From his arrival onwards our
Abraham MARTIN was in no hurry to disappear into nameless obscurity in the tiny
world of the first colony.
Years later historians found
his trail in the local, popular culture where his name was inscribed--first in
the topography of Quebec under the French regime and then in notarial records
making reference to Abraham's Coast.
A street named Abraham
appears in a 1734 Quebec City map. Then, later, we find his name preserved in
reports of the celebrated historic battles of 1759 and 1760. There were accounts
signed by English officers and published in London as well as in the journal of
New France's Chevalier de Levi.
The name Abraham MARTIN also
appears in the controversial will Champlain signed in November 1635, two months
before his death. Canadian history was young then and still in the making. The
original will was not discovered until 324
years later, in August 1959 to be exact, by the historian and archivist
Olga Jurgens, and published in 1963. In his will, Champlain "gives to
Abraham and his wife 600 livres with the charge of using it to clear land in
this country of New France." The founder also gave 600 livres to
Marguerite, daughter of Abraham, "to support her in marrying a man of this
country--New France--and no other."
The original will stated
clearly that if Champlain should leave little or nothing in goods and Quebec
properties to his widow, he wanted her to have the largest part of his
inheritance in France.
In 1863 the historian, J. B.
A. Ferland began to follow the track of the great curate Thomas Maguire. M.
Maguire 'suggested that a part of the Plains had belonged to an individual by
the name of Abraham."
In consulting civil registers for the parish of Notre
Dame de Quebec during the time of the French regime, Ferland found only one person
with the first name Abraham: Abraham Martin, called l'Ecossais [the Scot], who
was shown as a royal pilot. He was our
man.
In 1635 Abraham Martin
accepted, from the Company of New France, a land grant of 12 arpents in Quebec.
Another parcel of 20 arpents was added 10 years later. The combined land was
well-situated in the upper town, but north of the present Grand Allée, on what
was at that time called St-Genevieve Hill. For this reason Abraham Martin's
land should not be confused with the Plains today.
What may also be seen from
this little history is that should a man take his animals down to the Charles
River to drink, in taking the road of descent he would come to the Coast of
Abraham.
We discover in a notarial act
dated 16 October 1675 the name Charles-Amador Martin, only surviving son of
Abraham. Priest and co-inheritor, Charles-Amador cedes to the religious order
of Ursulines 32 arpents of land situated in a place called Claire-Fontaine in
exchange for the sum of 1200 livres, a small fortune at the time.
In the decisive battles of
1759 and 1760 French and English soldiers played a prominent role in insuring
that the topographical name Abraham was engraved in the historical record.
The Chevalier de Levi
mentioned in his journal on 19 July 1759 that the English "have four ships
passing above the town and in consequence will be able to send dispatches via
the Heights of Abraham and as far as Cap Rouge."
On the same day the troops of
Wolfe and Montcalm clashed, 13 September 1759, a Captain in an English
regiment, John Knox, wrote in his journal, later published under the title The
Siege of Quebec, that once landed at the foot of the cliff, they did not
stop, "till we comes to the Plains of Abraham."
Another English officer, John
Montresor, wrote a book published in London and titled The General Battle of
the Heights of Abraham.
If the land of Abraham Martin
was not contiguous with the present Plains, the battle of 1759, on the other
hand, really and truly was fought on the Plains of Abraham and on the ancient
property of Abraham Martin.
The great historic battle
raged all over the upper town. The French and English troops had taken position
on the cliff as far as the Sainte-Foy Road and Parliamentary Hill--today
approximately up to Rue Belvedere.
Reckoning from the beginning
of the English regime, local cartography considerably expanded the dimensions
of the Coast of Abraham and the Plains. Abraham's hillside covered the
continuation west of St. Genevieve's Hill up to Rue Suéte which leads to St-Foye
at Lorette.
Regarding the Plains of
Abraham, more often called the "Heights of Abraham," the
topographical name usually appeared on maps designating a large part of the
upper town outside the ramparts. It was not until 1879 that city maps delineated
exactly as it is known today.
In 1908 the federal
government created Battlefield Park. But for the people of Quebec it will
always be the Plains of Abraham or simply the Plains. An affectionate name. A
popular and gratuitous tribute to the earliest setters of the country.
Each time has its own
history. After the Conquest, the British Empire could not abandon the location
of its victory to anonymity. The place name had to be in accord with the
importance of the event.
Historians Jacques Mathieu
and Alain Beaulieu advance an interesting theory in their monumental history of
the Plains published in 1993 by Septentrion.
For them, the 1759 conqueror preserved the popular name believing that
it referred to the Biblical patriarch. They write: For people of the Protestant
faith, strongly imbued with Biblical tradition, the designation
"Abraham" makes use of a major symbolic power. The conquerors could
not fail to see themselves in the image of the great prophet. It was in this
way, through a series of misunderstandings, that a colorless colonist had his
name immortalized. History has kept the secret!
Sources: "Les Plaines
d'Abraham, le culte de l'idéal" de Jacques Mathieu et Eugen Kedl; le
dictionnaire biographique du Canada, tome 1; Les Cahiers des Dix, no 42; la
Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique français, no XVII.
Text publié dans le Soleil du
dimanche le 4 mai 1997 et ecrit part Louis Guy Lemieux. Voir Internet http://www.lesoleil.com
Abraham Martin is Yolande
St-Arneault's ancestor through 3 of his daughters: Anne, Marie, and Marguerite
[more available here].
She says:
I report the results of some
of my research to flesh out the story of Abraham Martin. [Translator's note: Abraham Martin is also
my ancestor through his daughter Marguerite].
The family of Abraham MARTIN,
dit L'Ecossais
His origin is unknown. He was
buried 08/09/1664 in Quebec, age 75; arrived Quebec 1619, returned to France
after the capture of Quebec by Kirke 24/07/1629, and returned to Quebec in 1633
or 1634, master pilot. [MSGCF (129): 162-164, T-27, DBC I 506-507, J.J.]
Married about 1620, France
LANGLOIS, Marguerite […]
origin unknown; died 17, buried 19/12/1663, Quebec: sister of Francois wife of
Pierre Desportes: Marguerite remarried in 1665 to Real Branche.
Eustache b 24-10-1621 Quebec
d after 1663
Marguerite b 04-01-1624
Quebec m 1638 Etienne Rachine
Helene b 21-06-1627 Quebec m
1640 Claude Etienne
Marie b 22-11-1638 Quebec m
1648 Jean Cloutier
Adrien b 22-11-1638 Quebec [perhaps
Jean, age 43 in the 1681 census at
the
House of the Jesuits of Notre Dame of the Angles]
Madeleine b 12-00-1640 Quebec
m 1653 Nicolas Foret
Barbe b 04-01-1643 Quebec m
1655 Pierre Biron
Anne b 23-03-1645 Quebec m
1658 Jacques Rate
Charles-Amador b 06-03-1648
Quebec d and buried 19-06-1711 Ste-Foy; in the
1681
census at the Quebec Seminary, priest 14-03-1671, chanter and musician, chanter
of the 1st chapter-house of Quebec 06-11-1684 [DBC II 480]
Taken from Jetté:
Dictionnaire genealogique des familles du Quebec
Note: Abraham could not sign
his name. We don't know what caused the accusation causing him to be
imprisoned. Taken from Les émigrants 1602-1662, Marcel Trudel.
The author closes with
Madonna's ancestry traced back to Abraham Martin.
******************
Abraham
Martin Macomb County Ancestor
June 2002
Lorelei Maison Rockwell
Lorelei@kennedy-rockwell.com
1-- Abraham Martin 1589-1664
[see Dictionnaire
généalogique des familles du Québec, p 778, by René Jette]
+ Marguerite Langlois ?--1665
2-- Marguerite Martin 1624-1679
+ Etienne Racine 1607-1689
3--M Madeleine Racine 1646-1726
+ Noel Simard ? -1715
4--Noel Simard 1664-1726
+Anne Dodier 1671-1728
5--Noel Simard dit Lombret 1695-1758
+Catherine Fortin 1698-1739
6--Marguerite Simard 1726-1771
+Ambrose Tremblay c1712-1767
This couple CAME TO MI about 1750 and settled at Grand Marais, Grosse Pointe. Both were b. at Baie St Paul, PQ and died at Detroit.
This line is published in Father Christian Denissen's FRENCH FAMILIES IN THE DETROIT RIVER REGION, 1701-1936, p 1180, #6.
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