Abraham Martin dit L'Ecossais

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 (maitre-pilote) 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 born¹ about 1589 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France or Xiste, Montpellier, France. He was christened² in 1589 in La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France. He died³^{, 4} on 7 September 1664 in Québec, Québec. He was buried⁵^{, 6, 7} on 8 September 1664 in Québec City, at age 75. Abraham Martin married⁸ 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 born¹ on 18 Feb 1595 in Montpellier, Herault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. She was christened² 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^{3, 4} on 17 December 1665 in Québec City. She was buried⁵ on 19 December 1665 in Québec City.

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.

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 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 04 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 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 1^st 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 Years 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 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

Am 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:

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. 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 (1).

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 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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. An affectionate name. A popular and gratuitous 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. 2^nd 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.