Abraham Martin dit l'Écossais (known as the Scotsman) (Abt.
1589 – 1664) married to Marguerite Langlois (1595 – 1665)
Abraham Martin dit L'Ecossais (known as the Scotsman), master pilot (maitrepilote) of the St. Lawrence, first came to Québec in 1617. Martin is, with Louis
Hébert, one of the first colonists of New France. There is dispute over Abraham
Martin’s parentage, with several couples thought to be possibilities. Most
researchers conclude Abraham Martin was born about 1589 in La Rochelle,
Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France or Xiste, Montpellier, France. He
was christened in 1589 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes,
France. He died on 7 September 1664 in Québec, Québec. He was buried on 8
September 1664 in Québec City, at age 75. Abraham Martin married Marguerite
Langlois on 24 October 1621 in Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, Ile de France, France
[MSGCF (129): 162-164, T-27, DBC I 506-507, J.J.]
Abraham Martin was the first King’s Pilot in New France
Marguerite Langlois was born on 18 Feb 1595 in Montpellier, Herault, LanguedocRoussillon, France. She was christened about 1600 in France. She married Abraham
Martin on 24 October 1621 in Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, Ile de France, France.
Following Abraham Martin’s death, Marguerite Langlois was married on 17
February 1665 in Québec City to René Branche (born about 1600 in of France). This
was short-lived as Marguerite died on17 December 1665 in Québec City. She was
buried on 19 December 1665 in Québec City.
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Arrival in Québec
Abraham Martin first arrived in Québec in the summer of 1617—probably making
the voyage in the same ship as Louis Hébert, the first Québec colonist. Martin’s
wife, Marguerite Langlois, and her sister, Francoise Langlois and Francoise's
husband, Pierre Desportes, accompanied him. The Desportes had one daughter,
Hélène, who would become the goddaughter of Québec's founder. Hélène was
born in Québec in 1620 and in 1634 married Guillaume Hébert, the son of Louis
Hébert.
Abraham and his family are thought to have returned permanently as one of the
founding families of Québec, arriving from France on the sailboat le Sallemande at
Tadoussac on 30 August 1620.
Some sources say Martin returned to France after the taking of Québec by the
English under Sir David Kirke on 24 July 1629, came back to Québec in 1633 or
1634 following its restoration to the French by the treaty of St Germain-en-Laye.
However, others indicate when David Kirke captured Québec in 1629 and left his
brother Lewis as governor until 1632, Martin and his family stayed on. Searching
through the old records of New France indicates the following settlers residing in
Québec after the surrender of 1629: Abraham Martin and his wife, Marguerite
Langlois, and their children Anne, 25 years old; Marguerite, 5 years old; and
Hélène, 2 years old. Note that most genealogists now believe that the Anne listed
there was a sister of Abraham Martin, not a daughter.
Abraham Martin's origins are unknown. Abraham was not a common French name
but most genealogists believe that he was of French origin born in 1589 from the
area of Metz in Lorraine. We know Abraham could not sign his name.
Abraham was called “L'Ecossais” which means “the Scotsman”. As a result, some
researchers deduce that he may have spent time in Scotland and fathered a son
while there. One reason for this speculation is that in Dundee, Scotland there is a
burial record of an Abraham Martin (died 13 June 1673), the lawful son of
Abraham Martin, a Frenchman from Metz, Lorraine, France. Unfortunately, the
records from Metz of the years when Abraham would have lived there have been
lost or destroyed.
Another factor: It was not uncommon for Scots whose lives were in danger from
the English to escape to France for safety. So the Martin surname may well have
originated in Scotland and Abraham Martin of Scottish descent. Legends say that
his father was devoted to the cause of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and involved in
a plot to free her from the English. The plot failed and he had to flee to France.
Since Queen Mary was a prisoner in England from May 1568 until she died on 8
February 1587, the dating is possible. The problem with this scenario is that
several candidates exist for Abraham Martin’s parents, but we cannot say for sure
at this time which set is correct.
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Abraham Martin might also have used the sobriquet “L'Ecossais” if he had been
enrolled in military service or had been a member of an illegal organization: such
names were used to avoid detection by officials looking for deserted soldiers or in
case the records of an illegal organization were seized. It is also possible that he
acquired the name because he had made several voyages to Scotland as a young
man.
From his arrival onwards our Abraham Martin was in no hurry to disappear into
nameless obscurity in the tiny world of the first colony.
This famous colonist, royal pilot and pilot of ship of the St. Lawrence, is one of the
sources of the Canadian national navy. Local boats went up and down the river
carrying people and goods to the various settlements along the banks of the river.
This must have been Abraham's main trade. Abraham, too, was the first to begin
the rudiments of the first chart of the St. Lawrence River and fished fish well
down into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is possible also that this is the same Martin
who was employed by Jean de Biencourt and Du Gua de Monts as navigator on the
coast of Acadia, although he would have been very young at the time. So while
there is some question as to whether Martin was really an official pilot or not, he
was referred to as “King's pilot” in his own day.
Like almost all the inhabitants of this country, Abraham Martin also farmed and
raised livestock on his land in the Québec City area.
The family of Abraham Martin, dit L'Ecossais
The offspring of Abraham Martin takes us back the founding of New France. One
saying is: a drop of blood of Abraham Martin, ploughman, Gulf fisherman and
sometimes river pilot, runs in the veins of all the French Canadians. Most
authorities state his wife Marguerite Langlois gave him 9 children. However, Jesuit
Relations Volume Number 28 states that the Martins had ten children. It is known
that none of the males from the marriage of Abraham Martin and Marguerite
Langlois had any descendents. So the numerous progeny come through their
daughters, all of whom married very young. Here are the children.
Eustache or Eustace Martin was the first boy born in Québec to European parents.
His was the first baptism recorded in the records of the Notre Dame de Québec
Catholic Church on October 21, 1621. It is possible that a young man who is
mentioned as having been in the Huron country in 1634-35 was Eustache Martin.
He died after 1663.
If Eustace, the first child of the French pioneer does not leave posterity, that is
not the case for first European girl to be baptized in New France. Marguerite
Martin or Marguerite Marie Martin L`Ecossais was born on 4 January 1624 in
Québec City. Marguerite died on November 25, 1679 at Château-Richer,
Montmorency, Charlevoix, Québec. In 1638 she married Étienne Racine (born 11
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May 1607, died 24 April 1689). The descendants of their ten children amount today
to thousands, including two Catholic bishops to the Canadian nation. For us,
however, the most important is Marie-Madeleine Racine (born 25 July 1646, died 3
December 1726) wife to Noël Simard (born 2 June 1637, died 24 July 1715) through
which the Joseph A. Parent family descends via several lines. Noël Simard married
Marie-Madeleine Racine in 1661. He was born in 1636 in Puymoyen, Charente,
France, son of Pierre Simard known as Lombrette and of Suzanne Durand. In 1667,
Noël Simard went to settle at Baie-St-Paul with a part of his family. The founding
pioneer of that area, he died in 1715. In Baie St. Paul, there is a monument to
Noël Simard, Madeleine Racine, and their daughter, Rosalie Simard, the first child
of French origin born in Baie St. Paul. Marie-Madeleine Racine in 1661, was born in
1646.
Hélène Martin was born on 21 June 1627 in Québec. She was the goddaughter of
Samuel de Champlain. Hélène married Claude Étienne in 1640. She had one child
by him before he died and then she married Medard Chouart des Groseillers with
whom she had one child who survived. Medard, the second husband, was a colorful
explorer, fur trader and co-founder of the Hudson's Bay Company.
Marie Martin was born in Québec City in 1635. She married Jean Cloutier (his
second marriage, the first was to Louise Belanger) in 1648. They had 14 children.
Jean Cloutier was born 1620 in St-Jean de Mortagne, France. He was son of
Zacharie Cloutier and Xainte Dupont. There are three Cloutier children of note. A
son, Jean Cloutier, born in 1652. He married Louise Bélanger in 1679. She was
born in 1657 to François Bélanger and Marie Guyon. Then, a daughter, Marie
Cloutier was born in 1655. In 1671 she married Jean-François Bélanger, born in
1648, brother to Louise Bélanger. Another girl, Xainte Cloutier, was born in 1661.
In 1681 she married Charles Fortin, born in 1656, son of Julien Fortin and
Genevieve Gamache.
Adrien or Adrian Martin was also born on 22 November 1638 in Québec City. He
was christened on 22 November 1638 in Québec, Québec. Thought to have died
before 01 June 1667 [but Adrien was possibly a Jesuit priest "Jean" in Notre Dame
des Anges, age 43 in the 1681 census at the House of the Jesuits of Our Lady of the
Angels]
Madeleine Martin was born in 1640 in Québec. She married Nicolas Forget in 1653.
Madeleine and Nicholas had 8 children. When he died she married Jean Baptiste
Fonteneau with whom she had one daughter.
Barbe Martin was born on 4 January 1643 in Québec. She married Pierre Biron in
1655. Barbe died in 1660 at age 17, 2 months after giving birth to her only child.
Anne Martin or Marie Anne Martin was born on 23 March 1645 in Québec. In 1658
she married Jacques Raté, born about 1631 in Laleu, La Rochelle, Aunis, France.
This couple had 12 children, including Marie-Anne Raté (1664/65 – 1729) who in
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1683 married Ignace Gosselin (1654 – 1727) which starts another direct line of
descent to the Joseph A. Parent family. Ignace Gosselin was the son of Gabriel
Gosselin and Françoise LeLièvre.
Charles-Amador Martin was born on 6 March 1648 in Québec City and christened
there the next day. He was ordained the second Canadian-born Catholic priest on
14 March 1671. We discover in a notarial act dated 16 October 1675 the name
Charles-Amador Martin, only surviving son of Abraham. Priest and co-inheritor of
the properties, in 1667 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 (for more on this property and its role in
history, see “The Plains of Abraham” section below). Charles is listed in the 1681
census at the Québec Seminary. An accomplish chanter, musician, and composer,
he was chanter of the 1st chapter-house of Québec, Québec, 6 November 1684
[DBC II 480]. He died on 19 June 1711 in Québec City and was buried on 19 June
1711 in St. Foy, Québec.
male child Martin was born about November 1649 in Québec (died in infancy).
Adapted from Jetté, Dictionnaire genealogique des familles du Québec
More about Abraham Martin
Olivier Letardif (Tardif) (1603-1665) in 1635 assisted the surveyor Jean Bourdon in
a land grant to Abraham Martin. Letardif witnessed Champlain’s will. The name
Abraham Martin also appears in the controversial will Samuel de Champlain signed
on 17 November 1635, two months before his death. The original will stated
clearly that if Champlain should leave little or nothing in goods and Québec
properties to his widow, he wanted her to have the largest part of his inheritance
in France. But in his will, Champlain also “gives to Abraham and his wife 600 livres
with the charge of using it to clear land [cut down trees] 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.”
Marguerite would have been only 11 at the time. This was probably given to
encourage her to stay in Québec to help populate the colony. She was not to get
the money if she left Québec to marry. The Martin sisters certainly contributed
their share to the early development and population growth of the Québec colony.
Canadian history was young then and still in the making. It is interesting to note
that 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.
On New Year’s day of 1646 the Jesuit Father, Jerome Lalemant, states that he
gave Marguerite Langlois, the wife of Abraham Martin, four handkerchiefs and to
him a bottle of Brandy. Other gifts were given this day but one is most worth
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mentioning. He gave Jean Bourdon a Galilean Telescope. This was taken from the
Jesuit Relations, Volume Number 28.
In February 1649 the little Québec colony had quite a shock when it was
announced that 60 year old Martin Abraham, friend of Samuel de Champlain and
the father of a large and respected family, was accused of having an affair with a
16 year old girl [i.e., “conduite incorrecte envers une jeune fille” in that Abraham
had forfeited the honor of a strapping young girl of 16, what today would possibly
be statutory rape, although marriages in those days occurred as young as 10].
Certainly it would be said that this old pig Abraham had debauched a fine “young
thing.” He spent some time in prison beginning on 15 February 1649 as a result of
his improper actions. Three months earlier his wife gave him last child. These
facts appear in court records that have been preserved. Not all of our ancestors
were saints.
Abraham Martin, known as the Scot, was buried in Québec on 8 September 1664 at
the age of 75. His widow, Marguerite Langlois, remarried on 17 February 1665 to
René Branche. She was buried on 17 December 1665, that very same year.
Granite Memorial to Abraham Martin dit l'Écossais
An eight foot granite memorial was erected by the Canadian Pacific Company to
recognize Abraham Martin as the first Canadian river pilot as part of a campaign to
honor leading Canadian personages. Henri Hébert designed and carved the
monument with the inauguration taking place on 12 May 1922. The monument is
located in Québec City’s old port, at the intersection of Abraham-Martin and
Dalhousie streets.
The monument features a column on a square base, topped by a terrestrial sphere
supported by four thistles, emblems of Scotland. The bas (or lower) relief depicts
the French symbol of a fleur de lys (lily flower) emerging from flood waters to
represent the pioneering role played by Abraham Martin as a king’s pilot. The
inscription engraved in the granite reads:
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THIS MONUMENT
RECALLS TO PASSERS BY
ABRAHAM MARTIN
CALLED “THE SCOT”
FIRST “KINGS PILOT”
ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
WHO TILLED THE LAND
ON THE ILLUSTRIOUS
PLAINS WHICH BEAR
HIS NAME
The Plains of Abraham
Abraham Martin first got a land grant from Champlain in 1617. Then in 1635
Abraham received from the Company of New France 12 “arpents” of land on the
heights in Québec City. In 1645 he received almost 20 more “arpents” as a gift
from Sieur Adrien du Chesne (or Chense), ship’s surgeon to Pierre Legaedeur de
Repentigny. Martin acquires the remainder of his property by buying some land
from the Ursulines, for a total of 32 (the same lands his son sold in 1667 above).
An arpent was an old French measurement somewhat similar to an acre. The
combined land grant was well-situated in the upper town, but north of the present
Grand Allée, on what was at that time called St-Genevieve Hill. Abraham Martin
grazed his cattle on these heights overlooking old Québec City and walked them
down to the Saint-Charles River to drink.
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A picturesque anecdote is that the hilly pathway of descent which they traveled
became known as the “Cote d'Abraham” (Coast of Abraham). The limits of this
property extended to encompass a vast territory. “The grounds were bounded
between Sainte-Geneviève Street, which descends down to the Protestant
cemetery; Claire-Fountain Street which passes in front of the Saint-Jean church;
the main part of Saint-Jean Street (“la grande rue Saint-Jean”) and a line along
the peak of the Sainte-Geneviève slope which terminates with the named descent
to the Coast of Abraham.
Historians found Abraham’s trail in the local, popular culture where his name was
inscribed--first in the topography of Québec under the French regime and then in
notarial records making reference to Abraham's Coast. A street named Abraham
appears in a 1734 Québec City map.
Ironically, Abraham did not own the land known today as the “Plains of Abraham”
which are near his property at the summit of Cap Diamants and was subsequently
then extended to entire plateau. This is where the critical clash between the
French General Montcalm and his British counterpart Wolfe decided which
European power would control North America. The victory by the British led to the
loss of the Québec colony by the French.
“The Plains of Abraham, near Quebec. (The Spot Where General Wolfe
Fell),” engraving from drawing by W.H. Bartlett in N.P. Willis, “Canadian
Scenery Illustrated” (London: James S. Virtue, 1842) (facing 1: 52).
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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 Lévis 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.”
The Battle of Québec, 1759
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 Montrésor (1736-1799), who was chief engineer in
America during the siege, wrote a book published in London in 1775 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.
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Battle on the Plains of Abraham, 1759
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.
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. 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.
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The British bombardment of church of Québec City was devastating as this
contemporary drawing from 1760 of the Notre-Dame-de-la-Victoire Church
and surrounding buildings demonstrates
Historians Jacques Mathieu and Eugen Kedl 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!
For many years, the origins of the name were lost. But in 1863, the historian J. B.
A. Ferland began to follow the track of the great curate Thomas Maguire. 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 Québec
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.
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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
Québec it will always be the Plains of Abraham or simply the Plains. As an
affectionate name, it remains a popular and gracious tribute to the earliest setters
of the country.
SOURCES:
Beaulieu, Alain. The Plains of Abraham - In the Heart of Quebec City. Québec:
Éditions HistoricArt, nd.
Casgrain, H. R., editor. Journal des campagnes du chevalier de Lévis en Canada de
1756 à 1760. Montréal: C.O. Beauchemin & fils, 1889.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume 1.
Ferland, Abbé J.B.A. (Jean Baptiste Antoine) (1805-1865). Notes sur les Registres
de Notre-Dame de Québec. 2nd edition. Québec: G. et G.E. Desbarats, 1863. 100
pp.
Jetté, René, Dictionnaire genealogique des familles du Québec, des origines à
1730. Montréal : Les Presses de l'Universite de Montréal, 1983, p. 778.
Knox, John (d.1778). An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North America for
the Years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760. 2 vols. as London: s.n., 1769. Reprinted,
Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1915. Republished as a wew edition, edited and
introduced by Brian Connell, with maps by K.C. Jordan. The siege of Quebec and
the campaigns in North America, 1757-1760. London. Folio Society. 1976.
Lemieux, Louis-Guy. “Abraham Martin: Ce personnage obscur de l'histoire donne
malgré tout son nom aux Plaines et à la côte d'Abraham”. Text publié dans le
Soleil du dimanche le 4 mai 1997, at http://www.lesoleil.com.
Mathieu, Jacques, and Kedl, Eugen. The Plains of Abraham the Search for the
Ideal. Québec: Septentrion, 1993, 318 pp.
Maguire, Thomas (1776?-1854). Observations d'un catholique sur l'Histoire du
Canada [n.p., 1827?], 13 pages.
Montrésor, John (1736-1799). The General Battle of the Heights of Abraham.
London: 1775.
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See also:
An Authentic Plan of the River St. Lawrence. London: Published by Thomas
Jefferys,
1759,
at
http://www.masshist.org/maps/2739_Atlas_16/2739_Atlas_16.html#. Drawn by an
officer of the Royal Navy, this interactive map depicts the British and French
tactical positions at the time of the climactic battle on the Plains of Abraham, 13
September 1759.
Fournier, Rodolphe. Lieux et monuments historiques de Québec et environs.
Québec: Editions Garneau, 1976. p. 22.
L'Événement, le 14 mai 1923 pp. 3,12.
Karel, D. Dictionnaire des artistes de langue française en Amérique. Québec:
Presses de l'Université Laval, pp. 385-386.
Lemoine, Album du touriste. Archéologie, histoire, littérature, sport. Québec:
Augustin Côté et cie, 1872, 385 pages.
Marquis, G.-E. Les monuments commémoratifs de Québec. Québec: 1958, pp. 186188.
Potvin, Damase. “Les monuments de Québec”. Le Terroir, vol. XI, no. 11, avril
1930, p. 23.
Roy, Pierre-Georges. Les monuments commémoratifs de la province de Québec.
Vol.1 Québec: Commission des monuments historiques de la province de Québec,
1923, pp. 151-154.
A Soldier’s Account of the Campaign on Quebec, 1759, edited by Robert
Henderson, at http://www.militaryheritage.com/quebec1.htm.
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