Abraham Martin dit l'Écossais

Abt 1589 - Bef 1664  (~ 75 years)

• Name	Abraham Martin dit l'Écossais
  Birth	Abt 1589  [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Bef 8 Sep 1664  [1]
  Alternate death	8 Sep 1664	Québec City, Québec   [2]
  Burial	8 Sep 1664	Québec City, Québec   [1]
  Person ID	I7102	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TNH, Ancestor of WPF
  Last Modified	20 Mar 2021

  
  

  Family	Marguerite Langlois,   b. Abt 1592, Xiste, Montpelliers, France d. 17 Dec 1665 (Age ~ 73 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1620	France   [1]
  Children	+ 1. Marguerite Martin,   b. Bef 4 Jan 1624   d. 25 Nov 1679 (Age > 55 years)   2. Hélène Martin,   b. Bef 21 Jun 1627   d. Abt 1652 (Age > 24 years) + 3. Marie Martin,   b. Bef 10 Apr 1635   d. 25 Apr 1699 (Age > 64 years) + 4. Anne Martin,   b. Bef 23 Mar 1645   d. 14 Jan 1717 (Age > 71 years)
  Family ID	F4520	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	12 Jan 2024

  
  

• Notes

  His "dit" name, "l'Écossais", means basically "the Scotsman." His farm was on a flat area just outside the walls of Quebec City which came to be known as the Plains of Abraham -- a name made famous ninety-five years after Abraham's death, when the decisive battle that delivered Quebec into British hands was fought there. He and his wife Marguerite Langlois are common ancestors of TNH's most recent Quebec-born ancestral couple, Louis Joubert (1841-1919) and Emile Bastien (1844-1869). From the Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Martin arrived in New France with his wife, Marguerite Langlois, her sister Françoise and brother-in-law Pierre Desportes (the parents of Hélène Desportes) about 1620. Martin may have been of Scottish descent or he might have used the sobriquet 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. There is some question as to whether Martin was really an official pilot or not, although he was referred to as “king’s pilot” in his own day. However, he did fish well down into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is presumed that the Plains (or Heights) of Abraham are named after Martin. It is picturesquely said that the “Côte d’Abraham” was the path that Martin used to descend to the St. Charles River to water his animals. His property amounted to 32 acres in all, 12 received from the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France in 1635 and 20 as a gift from Sieur Adrien Du Chesne, ship’s surgeon to Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny in 1645. This land was sold by the Martin family to the Ursulines in 1667. It is possible 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 that time. When David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629 and left his brother Lewis as governor until 1632, Martin and his family stayed on. In his later years Martin fell in the estimation of his fellow citizens when he was accused of improper conduct with regard to a young girl in Quebec. He was imprisoned for this on 15 Feb. 1649.

  
  

• Sources

  [S38] Genealogy of the French in North America, by Denis Beauregard. Complete version, 2024. [S2180] Dictionary of Canadian Biography.