Of the three groups who form what we now call Les
Anglais, those who have been here longest and those who are the most
remarkable are the Scottish Group. For us, French Canadians, this is
also the most sympathetic and the most understanding of the three
groups concerned.1
Statements such as this one made in 1898 are not
surprising to those familiar with the relations between Frenchman and
Scot throughout the history of Canada. There is considerable evidence
that a special understanding existed and may still exist between the
French and the Presbyterian as well as the Catholic Scot, which did not
develop between the French and others who joined them in Canada. Andre
Siegfried wrote, "they [the Scots] manifested a real goodwill towards
the French and these latter were the first to recognize it."2
There are specific reasons for the harmony between them but it must also
be realized that the Scot is not only unusually ubiquitous but also very
adaptable to other cultures. It matters not in what part of the globe we
search, the Scot is to be found, and very often he has been in the
country of his adoption for many generations. Curiosity and a sense of
adventure coupled with quarrels and crowding at home often led the Scot
to become a mercenary or simply to seek his fortune in a new land while
his ability to adapt and to succeed in a wide variety of circumstances
contributed greatly.
Relations between France and Scotland appear to have
started in the tenth century with negotiations between the Emperor
Charlemagne and the Scots to devise some protection against the
depredations of the Vikings. By the fifteenth century contact had
increased to the extent that he destinies of France and Scotland were
very much intertwined. Many Scots served in the Royal Body Guard of
Louis XI, many were involved in business, and others studied at the College Ecossais
at the Universite de Paris or became members of religious communities in
France. Intermarriage of royal families, alliances for political and
military purposes, cultural contacts - all increased until the sixteenth
century when they reached their greatest strength during the minority
and reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1600 Shakespeare wrote in Henry
V, "Qui la France veut gagner, A l'Ecosse
faut commencer!" giving an indication of Scotland's importance to France
but also of its vulnerability.3 The Auld Alliance, as the
connection between France and Scotland came to be called, saw its last
flowering in Europe with the events of the eighteenth century involving
the attempts of James and Charles Edward, the Old and the Young
Pretenders, to enlist the support of France in their attempts to recover
the throne of the United Kingdom. Against this kind of background it is
not surprising to find that the Auld Alliance had effects upon New
France as well as old.
Contrary to the accepted view, the official policy in
New France - that only French Catholics were allowed - was not
rigorously applied. From the documents of the period it is evident that
Austria, Belgium, China, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland were all
represented, however minimally and unofficially, in the colony. The
Scots were not only among those who had the closest and most cordial
relations with the French but were also among the most numerous of the
minority groups, if indeed that term is not too pretentious. There is no
question, however, that the heady brew of Celtic twilight and the fumes
from a Quebec sugar house were in evidence during the Ancien Regime,
even though it did not achieve its full potency until the nineteenth
century. One has only to read the very popular work of Philippe Aubert
de Gaspé, Les Anciens Canadiens, to see
what effects this brew could have.
Those Scots who came to New France under normal
circumstances can be divided into two groups, neither of them very
numerous. These were the settlers and the military. Possibly the first
mention of a Scot in New France is in the writings of Champlain. When he
returned to Canada from France in 1618 he found that the previous winter
had been a very difficult one; however, only one individual of the small
group then living in Quebec had died and he was a Scotch Huguenot who
reportedly refused conversion on his deathbed.4 Who was this
solitary unfortunate? There is no indication to throw any further light
on the subject.
Undoubtedly the best known of the reputed Scots in
the early years of the history of New France is Abraham Martin dit
l'Ecossais. The term "dit l'Ecossais" which was found in at least one
document concerning Abraham Martin is a solid indication that he was
indeed of Scottish ancestry.5 The name Martin could also be
English, German or French. Martin or Martine is one of the most
international of names but there are other pieces of what could be
called corroborative evidence of his ancestry. Martin's wife was
Margeurite Langlois. The name Langlois was an adaptation of L'Anglais
often given to those of English background. On the subject of the term "dit
l'Ecossais," this is certainly the most obvious indication of Abraham
Martin's background although it is only fair to say that it could also
have been a false name, used by him when in military service, or as the
member of an illegal organization. Another piece of evidence is the fact
that when the Kirke brothers captured Quebec in 1629 and Captain David
Kirke made his brother, Captain Louis Kirke, governor, Martin did not
leave with Champlain and many of the colonists, but chose to remain
under English rule. A case could be built to show that this proved
certain sympathies with the Scots Kirkes, but the fact remains that
other accounts assure us that a number of people chose to stay simply to
avoid the horrors of an Atlantic passage. They thought that they might
be better off remaining in Quebec with what little they had been able to
accumulate by this time.
Was Abraham Martin a Scot or not? It is very
difficult to say with complete certainty but the weight of evidence is
clearly in favour of this conclusion. Certainly he was the first of the
king's St. Lawrence pilots and the Plains of Abraham were named after
him. For these reasons his name is known to us today. Martin, or Maitre
Abraham as one often finds him called, lived in Quebec until 1664, when
he died at the age of 75. He had many descendants, same of whom should
be mentioned. First of all, Anne Martin, probably born in France,
married Jean Cote in 1635, and thus Abraham became the ancestor of the
very, very numerous Cote families in Quebec today. Marguerite Martin
married Etienne Racine in 1638 and, again, there are numerous
descendants, including two bishops of the Catholic Church. Hélène
Martin married Claude Etienne in 1640 and secondly, in 1647 she married
a fascinating person, Médard Chouart, better
known as Chouart des Grosseilliers, the explorer and pilot who led a
very varied and colourful existence indeed. Marie Martin in 1648 married
Jean Cloutier, and, again, there are very numerous descendants.
Charles-Amador Martin, born in 1648, was the second Canadian to become a
priest and he served successively at Beauport, Sainte-Famille,
Chateau-Richer and Ste-Foi. He was a Canon of Quebec and composed the
Mass of the office of the Holy Family, which is still sung. Thus he was
probably the first Canadian composer.
The records of the Hotel-Dieu of Quebec mention a
young girl of Scottish ancestry who arrived in Canada in 1642, Marie
Irwin.6 The name was also written as Kirwin, Herovin and
Hirouin. She is quoted in the annals of the Hotel-Dieu as being the
daughter of a noble Scotsman who took refuge in France with all his
family in order to preserve his religion. Born in Scotland in 1626,
Marie Irwin remained as a pensionnaire at the Hotel-Dieu in Quebec from
1642 to 1647 when she returned to France. She entered a convent at
Dieppe, where she became a nun, and returned to New France in 1657. Her
name in religion was Mere Marie de la Conception. She died in October,
1687, in Quebec.7
Of the Scots who entered particularly into the
military annals of New France there are two names that stand out. They
are Ramsay, or de Rame-zay, and Douglas or Douglass, or Du Glas. There
seems to be little question that Claude de Ramezay and his son, Jean-Baptiste-Nicholas-Roch,
were of Scottish descent, but the actual connecting link poses some
problems as yet. The first person who can be traced with some certainty
is one Philibert de Ramezay, Sieur de Montigny et de Bélin.
There are documents concerning him dating from 1532. His great-grandson,
Claude de Ramezay, born in France June 15, 1659, came to Canada in 1685.8
I shall not go further into the
European connection except to say there seems to be little question that
Claude was descended from a Scot. Most probably he was descended from
Sir John Ramsay who spent some 15 years exiled in France, part of it as
a member of a regiment raised by Sir John Hepburn. Claude de Ramezay, as
mentioned, arrived in Canada in 1685 as an ensign with the troops of the
marine. He was one of several "fils de fa-mille" who accompanied the
Marquis de Denonville on his arrival as governor of the colony. He rose
swiftly to the rank of lieutenant and then captain. In 1690 he was made
governor of Three Rivers and it was in that same year that he married
Marie-Charlotte Denys de la Ronde at Quebec. In 1696 he was put in
command of the colonial militia on the occasion of an expedition against
the Indians. In 1699 he became commanding general of the troops of New
France. He was called to Montreal in 1701 as Lieutenant-du-Roi and was
made governor of the same city in 1704. He held this position until his
death at Quebec in August 1724.
Claude de Ramezay received the highest military
distinction available, the Cross of St. Louis and, during the absence of
Governor Vaudreuil, he acted as Governor par interim of Canada. He was granted, over a period of years, three
seigneuries. That of Sorel he received in 1672, but soon forfeited to
the government when he did not carry out the attached duties. That of
Monoir on the Richelieu was granted in 1708, and that of Ramezay on the
Yamaska in 1710. Claude de Ramezay and Marie-Charlotte Denys de la Ronde
had 16 children. Of these, Claude, born in 1691, was killed at the
Battle of Rio de Janeiro in 1711. Louis, Sieur de Monoir, born in 1695
at Three Rivers, was massacred while commanding an expedition against
the Cherokees in 1716. Charles-Hector, Sieur de la Gesse, born in 1695,
became a captain of the colonial troops and was drowned in 1725 on the
vessel Chameau crossing the Atlantic. Marie-Catherine, born in
1696, entered the Ursuline Convent in Quebec. Marie-Charlotte, born
1697, entered the H6pital-General in Quebec as a nun and remained the
until her death in 1767. Louise-Geneviève,
born in 1699, married Major Louis-Henri Deschamps in 1721 and at his
death in 1736 retired to the Hopital-General in Quebec. Of her children,
one, Charles Deschamps, rose to the rank of captain in 1756 and received
the order of Chevalier de St. Louis in 1758. Another, Louise-Charlotte,
married, at Quebec in 1745, Roch de St. Ours of another well-known
family. Francoise-Louise de Ramezay was born in Montreal in 1705. She
never married but showed remarkable business acumen in attempting to
improve the poor financial state of her family. She was one of the
earliest successful businesswomen in Canada. Marie-Elizabeth de Ramezay,
born in 1707, married Louis de la Corne, Sieur de Chapt and lieutenant
in the troops of the Marine. He finally became a captain, Chevalier de
St. Louis, and was Seigneur of Terrebonne when he died in 1762. His
widow retired to the Community of the Grey Nuns in Montreal. One of
their children will come into our narrative later Marie-Charlotte de la
Corne, who married one Francois-Prosper de Douglass. The only son to
survive was Jean-Baptiste-Nicholas-Roch. He was born in 1706, became an
ensign at the age of twelve, rising swiftly to captain, and was
commandant of the area of Hudson Bay and of Acadia, a major at Quebec
and finally Lieutenant-du-Roi, also at Quebec. It was while in this
position that he surrendered the Citadel to a Scot by the name of
Murray. He married Louise, the daughter of Rene Godefroy de Tonnancour,
at Three Rivers in 1728. After the capitulation he and his wife returned
to France. There are thus no de Ramezays left by name in Quebec but the
family was obviously one of great importance during the French Regime.
We have already seen that Marie-Charlotte de la Corne,
the daughter of Marie-Elizabeth de Ramezay and Louis de la Corne,
married Francis-Prosper de Douglass. This was an interesting coincidence
when two of the foremost families of Scottish origin in New France
became allied. The marriage document of this occasion found in the
Archives of the Superior Court in Montreal, provides a most interesting
view of the period, apart from naming the parents of Francois-Prosper.
The signatures of those present at the ceremony on April 12, 1757, form
a roster of the important people of the time. Aside from the two
principal persons, who signed simply "Douglass" and "Charlotte Lacorne,"
we have Marie-Elizabeth de Ramezay, the mother of the bride, who signed
"de Ramezay Lacorne;" Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, the Governor of
Montreal, who signed simply "Vaudreuil," and the Chevalier de Levis.
There were several members of the D Ailleboust family, including
Charles-Joseph, who was Lieutenant-du-Roi of Montreal at this time. We
also find the signatures of Montcalm, of Bourlamarque and of Montreuil.
Although the versions of the background of
Francois-Prosper de Douglass are almost as numerous as the places in
which they are mentioned, there seems to be little question that he was
also of Scottish descent. The marriage record states that he was "fils
majeur de defunt Messire Charles Comte de Douglas de Mégillac."
The gentleman who interests us particularly arrived in New France as a
lieutenant in the Regiment of Languedoc in 1743. He obtained a company in 1746, was wounded at the Battle of
Carillon on July 8, 1758, and obtained the Cross of St. Louis in the
same year. There are several references to an officer by the name of
Douglas in the French forces at Quebec at the time of the capitulation,
and there is some possibility that it may be another person, who is
mentioned later. As far as they can be unravelled,
however, these references are to Francois-Prosper de Douglass. The best
known source is the memoirs of M. le Chevalier de Johnstone, himself a
Scot. These memoirs are not notable for their great historical accuracy
but there is no reason to believe that Johnstone did not know the other
officers present at the siege of Quebec. In this sometimes very fanciful
account there is mention of Captain Douglas as in charge of one of the
posts at the top of the heights scaled by Wolfe's troops.9 Evidence points to the station of Samos as the one that Douglass
commanded.10 In any case, Francois-Prosper de Douglass and
his wife went to France after the capitulation, taking with them their
two sons, Louis-Archembault de Douglass and Charles-Luc de Douglass.
It appears that there were two men by the name of
Douglas among the officers of the regular militia or colonial troops who
attained the rank of captain or lieutenant in the period 1670 to 1760.
The list compiled by Benjamin Suite only mentions one without specifying
which, but there were undoubtedly two of this name.11 The
second person was Jean Douglas. He is referred to as the Chevalier de
Bassignac and is variously mentioned as being a captain in the Regiment
de Béarn and as a captain in the Regiment de
Royal-Roussillon. He received the order of Chevalier de St. Louis, a
slightly lower order than the Cross of St. Louis awarded to
Francois-Prosper, but they both received their decorations on the same
date, October 20, 1758. The Chevalier Jean Douglas de Bassignac is
mentioned in the memoirs of Captain Pouchot of the Regiment de Beam as
being present, as was Francois-Prosper, at the Battle of Carillon.12
According to the journal of Captain Pouchot,
M. De Bassignac attached a handkerchief to the end of his gun, though
for what purpose is not stated. The British thought that this was a sign
that the French wished to surrender and immediately marched forward,
expecting their adversaries to lay down their arms. According to the
report, the French felled a number of British soldiers. Another story
emanating from the Battle of Carillon is recorded as follows:
Some highlanders, taken prisoner by the French
and Canadians huddled together on the battlefield and, expecting to
be cruelly treated looked on in mournful silence. Presently, a
gigantic French officer walked up to them and whilst exchanging in a
severe tone some remarks in French with some of his men suddenly
addressed them in Gaelic. Surprise in the Highlanders soon turned to
positive horror. Firmly believing that no Frenchman could ever speak
Gaelic, they concluded that his Satanic Majesty in person was before
them. It was a Jacobite serving in the French Army. 13
It must be asserted that there is no proof of
the authenticity of this tale nor of the identity of the
Gaelic-speaking devil. There were, undoubtedly, a few Scots who,
taking refuge in France following 1745, joined the French forces
that came to the New World. Three of these are the Chevalier de
Johnstone already mentioned, Chevalier de Montelambert and the Chevalier de Trion.14 They took
service at Louisbourg in 1749. It is uncertain whether the others ever
actually went beyond Louisbourg and came to Quebec, but Johnstone took a
ship for Quebec as he was not anxious to be captured by the British. He
became aide-de-camp to de Levis in 1759, stayed at Quebec with Montcalm
and was there at the time of the capitulation. He was afraid of the
treatment he would receive from the victorious army but General Murray
showed leniency and Johnstone stayed for a few months at Quebec with a
cousin who was a captain in the British artillery. He returned to France
in 1760.
The value of the Scots as fighting men was certainly
recognized throughout Europe and in New France as well. Louis-Antoine,
Comte de Bougainville, who was one of Montcalm's better officers at the
time of the seige of Quebec, wrote a memorandum in which he set down a
number of necessary items for the defence of the colony. Among these he
included the following:
A troop of Scots, even of only sixty men, headed
by a MacLean or a MacDonald, or some other of these Clan Chiefs, of
whom the names are cherished and respected by all Highlanders. These
last understand very well they are sent to America in great numbers
by the British in order to depopulate their area and even in hopes
of seeing some of them killed. Those that we have captured have told
us a hundred times and over that if they saw in our army a troop of
their own compatriots and a chief known by them a great number of
them would come over to our flag and that the nucleus of sixty men
would bring us a very considerable number indeed.15
There is undoubtedly considerable truth in these
statements though it is entirely possible that the captured Scots were
anxious to say anything that would please the French in the hope of
better treatment and rations.
During the Old Regime, Scots were also found in the
region of Acadia. Matters became very complicated at times because of
the constant change of allegiance or change of ownership of this area
and the people often did not know under which flag they were living. The
first colonizing attempts took place in 1603 at St. Croix Island and
later at Port Royal. In 1621 Sir William Alexander, knighted for his
literary achievements by James VI and I, was
granted Acadia, a huge domain stretching from the Atlantic to the St.
Lawrence, and east from an extrapolation of the St. Croix River north.
This territory he called New Scotland and he intended to found a large
and prosperous colony of Scots. Alexander planned to grant parcels of
land to individual gentlemen on whom would be conferred the title of
Baronet of Nova Scotia and, in return, they would bring settlers to
their lands, thus opening up the country. The Kirke family, already
heard of in connection with the taking of Quebec in 1629, assisted
Alexander in settling the colony. In 1628 two ships were sent out to
Port Royal under the command of the son of William Alexander and, and
according to the records, there were seventy colonists (described as
more or less willing) who came to set up a colony near
the ruins of the French port known as Port Royal or Charles Fort. The
site is where one finds the present-day village of Granville, Nova
Scotia. What happened over the next few years is rather vague, but in
any case, with the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1632, Canada and
Acadia were returned to the French. There seems to be no question that
the Scottish colony had had considerable difficulty; there was much
sickness, and the Indians were not friendly. A number of colonists left
in 1632, reportedly going back to Scotland, but a few stayed. One source
gives the names of those families who stayed as the Paisleys, Colle-sons,
Melansons, Peters and Kesseys.16 The only name that
appears in later records is Melanson, and it seems probable that the
Melansons chose to remain under the French and, indeed, very quickly
became French. There are other possible explanations for the arrival of
the Melansons in Acadia, one being that they arrived in 1657 with Sir
Thomas Temple, appointed Governor of Nova Scotia by Oliver Cromwell.
Reportedly, Temple continued on to Boston leaving the Melansons, among
others, at Port Royal.17 But it would seem most likely that
they came as part of the settlement of Sir William Alexander and then
remained after 1632. La Mothe-Cadillac, in his Memoire sur l'Acadie,
states that he saw in 1685 at Port Royal two brothers who had become
Catholics and had married French girls.18 It would seem
possible that these two brothers were the Melansons. In any case, we
find in documents of this period two brothers, Pierre and Charles
Melanson or Mellanson. The census of Port Royal for 1671 gives us
Charles Melanson, labourer, aged 28, and his wife Marie du Gast, age 23,
and four children. It also mentions Pierre with the following
information: "tailleur, Pierre Melanson refused to give his age, the
number of his stock, and information about his lands and his wife asked
why anybody would be so stupid as to run around the country asking such
questions."19 This entry in the census is amusing, although
not particularly helpful. The census of 1686 gives us a little more
information of Pierre Melanson and his family, listing Pierre Melanson
de la Verdure, 54 years old, and Marie Mius d'Entremont, 36 years of
age, living at the Baie des Mines with their 9 children.20
Both Melanson families seemed to prosper and grow in
number and they remained in Acadia after its cession to the British by
the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. A number of Melansons or Mellansons (also
spelt a number of other ways such as Melensont, Mellson and so on in
documents of the mid-eighteenth century) at that time signed statements
promising to be faithful to their new king.21 With the
dispersion of the Acadians in 1755, the name Melanson seems to have
spread to the four winds. It is among the names of the parishioners in
the Church of Grand Pre;22 the name is found in Pennsylvania
and in many other parts of North America. Most of the Melansons seem to
have returned later to Acadia or to have gone to Quebec. The name
Melanson is still found in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, usually
spelled Melanson, but also Melancon, which is simply the French spelling
of the same name.23 The descendants of the Melanson family
are numerous and are spread throughout Acadia and Quebec. Claude
Melancon, public relations officer with the CNR and writer of natural
history books, is one; Msgr. Georges Melancon, the Bishop of Chicoutimi,
was another, as is the Abbe Melancon, of the Bishopric of Joliette.
There is much pathos in the history of the Acadians,
of which the Melancon family forms a part, as do the captives,
particularly the many children, who were taken in the border raids on
the frontier settlements. Whether France and England were at war or not,
two things were carried on; one was trade, illicit or otherwise, and the
other was a series of guerrilla raids to harass the enemy. With regard
to trade, an official raid of 506 houses in Montreal in 1741
showed that 449 of the homes contained contraband goods.24
The question of legitimate trade involving Scots is still to be properly
investigated but one example of a financial transaction can be given.
The archives of the colonies, "Extraits des Lettres du Canada" for
October 22, 1705, contain the account of the case of one Samuel Belth or
Beith, who arrived in Quebec from Boston on a mission concerning the
exchange of prisoners.25 One might think that he had another
reason for taking on this mission when it is learned that he had loaned
£3,000 to Claude de Ramezay in 1701 and was still awaiting payment. The
same records show that Louis XIV had
authorized the colonists to deal in matters of business
"avec les Ecossais.''
The record books of The Sovereign & Superior Councils
yield a number of documents known as "Lettres de Naturalité"
or naturalization papers which are useful in the search for non-French
names in New France. These were given to people who were not citizens of
New France, but who wished to have their status regularized and become
citizens. A large number of those who received these letters were
captives, taken either in the border raids or in other raids that took
place on Hudson's Bay or in Newfoundland. Among the captives there were,
of course, many children whose names were lost. Many of the Langlois
families in Quebec today are descended from captives who were simply
baptized Pierre, or Marie, or some other such Christian name followed by
L'Anglais - English one - and this has become Langlois.
One captive whose name is of Scottish origin is
Marie-Madeleine Warren. She is listed in the registers of Notre Dame de
Montreal as having been baptized on May 9, 1693. She is referred to as
Madame Kresek, born in New England, February, 1662, of the marriage of
Jacques Warren, a Scottish Presbyterian, and of Marguerite, described
simply as an Irish Catholic. She was captured June 28, 1689. On October
15, 1693, Marie-Madeleine Warren was married to one Philippe Robitaille
in Montreal. When Marie Warren was captured she had with her her
daughter from a previous marriage, Christine Otis. When Philippe married
Madeleine Warren he adopted Christine.
A list of the English captives remaining in the hands
of the French in 1695 gives Grysell Otis and Christen
(sic) Otis among those held.26 Without going into
undue detail, it is interesting to note that Christine Otis married
Louis Lebeau, a carpenter at Ville Marie, in 1707 and that she had
several children by him. He died in 1713 and in the following year his
widow was successfully wooed by a Captain Thomas Baker who came to New
France as interpreter for Stoddart and Williams on their mission
following the Treaty of Utrecht. This must indeed have been a very
strange situation. Originally captured from New England at the age of
three months, the young widow, with several children by her French
husband, now returned to New England to remarry there. Apparently the
state, the church and her mother all opposed Christine's departure from
New France and attempted to prevent it. She was not allowed to take any
money with her. She had intended to take at least one of her children
and leave the others with her mother and step-father. In the end
Governor Vaudreuil refused to allow her to take any children and
Christine ceded all belongings to her mother and step-father,
stipulating that she could take possession if she returned to Canada.
Thus, Christine Otis Lebeau arrived in New England and married Thomas
Baker. She was rebaptized as a Protestant before the marriage. There
were several children by this marriage. Christine Baker and her husband
made one trip back to New France in 1721 in the hopes of recovering her
children, but they were unable to do so.27
Another captive of interest was John Reid (Reed), who
was granted a letter of naturalization in June, 1713. Here he is
referred to as Jean Reed.28 Among others granted citizenship
at the same time were several taken by D'Iberville in his attack on Fort
St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1696. However, the fact that Reid appears
in Montreal might lead one to think that it was more probable that he
was captured in New England, but this is far from certain. The archives
in the Palais de Justice in Montreal preserve the record of the marriage
of Jean Ris in 1714 to Catherine Primeau in the parish of La Prairie. He
is described there as Jean Ris, son of David Ris and of Elizabeth
Madrianu, his father and mother both being declared to be of Verness
[Inverness] in Scotland. The registers of the parish of Notre Dame,
Montreal, in the year 1715, give the record of the baptism in the month
of October of one Marie Caterine, two-day-old daughter of Jan Reidde,
Ecossais, and of Caterine Primot his wife.29 This, of course,
shows the kind of change which can take place, even within the same
document, in a name. There were six children of this marriage and from
some of these are descended the many Reid families that we find in
Quebec today, especially in the regions of Chateauguay, Beauharnois, St.
Philomène, Montreal, La Prairie, Quebec and
elsewhere. One must be careful, of course, not to mistake some of the
Reids who arrived in the Montreal region after 1760 with those who
arrived before. The spelling Reid appears to have practically
disappeared for generations. It went through variations such as Ris,
Ridde, and Riddey, but today the only spelling found of the descendants
of John Reid is Reid, although none of the people concerned have any
indication whatsoever that they are anything but of French descent.
There are several other names of interest which occur
in examination of the records of naturalization; George Gray30
and William Saderlan (Sutherland?) are two that are recorded as
being natives of Scotland.31 To be entirely thorough, one
must, of course, look at the legal records of those who were
malefactors, and even here we find question of Scots. One record shows
the conviction on September 19, 1755, of Charles Kennedy and his
accomplices of the crime of stealing several pieces of silverware from
the home of one of the counsellors of Quebec. Kennedy and one other
person were led to the gallows.32 There is no record that he
was a Scot, but the name might lead one to that conclusion.
Thus whether of high rank as were the de Ramezays or
of humble origins as were most Scots who came to New France, Scots had
already begun to play a part in Canadian history before the great influx
began following the cession to Great Britain of Acadia in 1713 and of
New France in 1763.
NOTES
1. Benjamin Suite, "Les Ecossais au Canada," La
Revue des Deux Frances, II (1898), 120.
2. Andre Siegfried, Le Canada, les Deux Races
(Paris: Colin, 1906), p. 73.
3. William Shakespeare, Henry
V, Act I, Scene 2.
4. Morris Bishop, Champlain, The Life of Fortitude
(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963), p. 270.
5. Notre Dame de Quebec, Registre de Bapteme, le 24
Octobre, 1621.
6. Les Annales de I'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec
(Quebec: l'Hotel-Dieu, 1939), p. 42.
7. Mgr. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire Genealogique
des Families Canadi-ennes (Montreal: Senecal, 1971), i, 307.
8. Victor Morin, Les Ramezays et leur Chateau
(Societe Archeologique et Numismatique de Montreal, 1955), p. 26.
9. James Johnstone de Johnstone, "Memoirs de M. le
Chev. de Johnstone," Literary and Historical Society of Quebec
(Montreal: Societe d'Archeol-ogie et de Numismatique, 1955), Series ix,
Part n, p. 130.
10. Abbe H-R Casgrain, "Les Plaines d'Abraham,"
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec Transactions, 1889-1900,
No. 23, p. 51.
11. Benjamin Suite, "Canadian Militia Under the
French Regime," Melanges Historiques (Montreal: Ducharme, 1918),
I, 143.
12. Pierre-Georges Roy, "Officers du Regiment de Béarn,"
Bulletin des Re-cherchesHistoriques, li (1945), 425.
13. J. Murray Gibbon, Scots in Canada
(Toronto: Musson, 1971), p. 78.
14. Johnstone, pp. 63-199.
15. Pierre-Georges Roy, ed., "Memoir pour le Ministre
de la Marine sur 1. Les Pandres Alimentaires; 2. Les Canons Portifs; 3.
Une Troupe d'E-cossais à envoyer au Canada, 17
janvier, 1759," par M. Bougainville. Rapport de l'Archiviste de la
Province de Quebec, 1923-1924, p. 40.
16. Emile Louvrière, La
Tragedie d'un Peuple (Paris: Bossard, 1923), I, 64.
17. Bona. Arseneault,
L'Acadie des Ancetres (Quebec: Laval,
1955), p. 40.
18. Ibid.,pA2.
19. Placide Gaudet, Genealogie des Families
Acadiennes, Archives of Canada, Documents de la Session, No.
18,1906, p. 62.
20. "Recensement de L'Acadie en 1686," in Bulletin
des Recherches His-toriques, xxxviii (1932), No. 12, 725.
21. Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal
Society of Canada, 1886, VI, Sect. I, p.
52.
22. Arsenault, p. 285.
23. It has been suggested by Professor W. Stanford
Reid that Melanson is an anglicized form of MacMillan, which means "son
of Millan." This is an interesting possibility, although the family
tradition is that they were MacClellands.
24. Marcel Trudel, Introduction to New France
(Toronto: Holt, 1968), p. 198.
25. Archives des Colonies, Paris, CII,
A23, fol. 196, 198.
26. Emma Lewis Coelan, New England Captives
Carried to Canada, 1677-1760(Portland, Me., Southworth, 1925), I,
75.
27. Ibid.,
pp.
150-154.
28. Archives de la Prov. de Quebec, Registre des
Insinuations du Conseil Superieur, Vol. D, No. 4, fol. 9.
29. Tanguay, vi, 574.
30. Ibid.J4,\24, pp. 378-9. See also Tanguay,
iv, 356.
31. Tanguay, vii, 108.
32. Archives de la Prov. de Que., Registre
Criminel, iv, fol. 150-1.