The Plains of Abraham
“Aux plaines d’Abraham, rendez-vous des batailles, revenez voir ces lieux, oh! revenez encore, officiers du Grand Roi, revenez tous aussi, La Barre, Frontenac, Denonville, Tracy! alignez vous, soldats, Carignan et Guienne, appuyez, Languedoc et Béarn et la Reine.”
—Alp. de Puibusque.
“Among modern Battle-fields,” says Col. (now Lt. General) Beatson, “none surpass in romantic interest the Plains or Heights of Abraham.”
No Quebecer would have the hardihood to challenge the assertion of this able engineer officer, stationed here from 1849 to 1854, and who spared neither time nor pains, with the assistance of our historians and antiquarians, Ferland, Faribault and McGuire, to collect authentic information on this subject. Col. Beatson compiled a volume of historical notes, which he published in 1858, when stationed at Gibraltar. [201]
The Plains of Abraham will ever be famous, as having witnessed, more than one century back, the deadly encounter of the then two leading nations of Europe—England and France—to decide the fate of Canada—one might say (by the series of events it led to) the destinies of North America.
Of this mighty duel, which crimsoned with human gore these fields one murky September morning, in 1759—Smollett, Carlyle, Bancroft, Hawkins, Smith, Garneau, Ferland, Miles and other historians have vied with one another to furnish a graphic account. Of the origin of the name, none until lately could tell.
“Notwithstanding,” adds Col. Beatson, “the world-like celebrity of these Plains, it was not until very recently that the derivation of their name was discovered; and as it is comparatively unknown, even in Canada, the following explanation of its origin will doubtless possess attractions for such as are fond of tracing to their sources the names of celebrated localities, and who may be surprised to learn that upwards of a century previous to the final conquest of Canada by the British arms, the scene of the decisive struggle for national supremacy in the northern division of the New World had derived its name from one who, if not a Scotchman by birth, would seem to have been of Scottish lineage. This apparently improbable fact will, however, appear less extraordinary when it is known that he was a sea-faring man; and when it is considered how close was the alliance and how frequent the intercourse which, for centuries before that period, had subsisted between France and Scotland.
“This individual, whose name was Abraham Martin, is described in a legal document, dated the 15th August, 1646, and preserved among the archives of the Bishop’s Palace, at Quebec, as (the King’s) Pilot of the St. Lawrence; an appointment which probably conferred on its possessor considerable official rank; for we find that Jacques Quartier, or Cartier, the enterprising discoverer and explorer of the St. Lawrence, when about to proceed in 1540, on his third voyage to Canada, was appointed by Francis I, Captain General and Master Pilot of the expedition which consisted of four vessels.
“That Martin was a person of considerable importance in the then infant colony of New France may also be inferred from the fact that, in the journal of the Jesuits and in the parish register of Quebec, he is usually designated by his Christian name only, Maître Abraham; as well as from the circumstance of Champlain, the distinguished founder of Quebec and father of New France, having been god-father to one of Abraham’s daughters (Hélène) and of Charles de St. Etienne, Sieur de la Tour, of Acadian celebrity, having stood in the same relation to Martin’s youngest son, Charles Amador.
“The earliest mention of Martin’s name occurs in the first entry of the parish register of Quebec, viz., on, the 24th of October, 1621; when his son Eustache, who died shortly afterwards, was baptized by father Denis, a Franciscan Friar. The second baptism therein recorded is that of his daughter Marguerite, which took place in 1624; and it is stated in the register that these children were born of the legitimate marriage of Abraham Martin surnamed or usually known as the Scot (“dict l’Ecossois.”) Their family was numerous; besides Anne and other children previously to the opening of the register in 1621, the baptism of the following are therein recorded:—
Eustache,……………. \ / 1621.
Marguerite,………….. | | 1624.
Marie,………………. | | 1627.
Adrien,……………… | Born in | 1635.
Madelaine,…………… | | 1640.
Barbe (Barbara),……… | | 1643.
Charles Amador,………. / \ 1648.
who was the second Canadian raised to the priesthood, and became a canon at the erection of the chapter of Quebec.”
As the reader will observe there is nothing to connect the Plains with that of the patriarch of Genesis. Nay, though our Scotch friend owned a family patriarchal in extent, on referring to The Jesuits’ Journal we find, we regret to way, at page 120 an Entry, according to which the “Ancient Mariner” seems to have been very summarily dealt with; in fact committed to prison for a delinquency involving the grossest immorality. The appellation of Plains of Abraham was formerly given by our historians to that extensive plateau stretching from the city walls to the Sillery Wood, bounded to the north by the heights of land overhanging the valley of the St. Charles, and to the south by the coin du cap overlooking the St. Lawrence, whose many indentures form coves or timber berths, for storing square timber, &c., studded with deep water wharves.
The hill in St. John suburbs or ascent leading up from the valley of the St. Charles, where St. Roch has since been built to the table-land above, was from time immemorial known as COTE D’ABRAHAM, Abraham’s Hill. Why did it bear that name?
On referring to the Parish Register of Quebec, from 1621 to 1700, one individual seems to have borne the name of Abraham, and that person is Abraham Martin, to whom under the appellation of Maître Abraham, repeated reference is made both in the Register and the Jesuits’ Journal.
Abraham Martin, according to the documents quoted by Col. Beatson, owned in two separate lots—one of twenty and the other of twelve arpents—thirty-two arpents of land, covering, as appears by the subjoined Plan or Diagram copied from his work, a great portion of the site on which St. John and St. Louis Suburbs have since been erected. Abraham’s property occupied, it would seem, a portion of the area—the northern section—which, for a long period, also went under the name of Abraham’s Plains. It adjoined other land of the Ursuline Ladies then owned on Côteau St. Louis, closer to the city, when 1667, [202] it was purchased by them; at that time, the whole tract, according to Col. Beatson, went under the general name of Plains of Abraham. Such appear to be the results of recent researches on this once very obscure question.