Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin (1652 - 1707) was a French military officer serving in Canada, and an Abenaki chief. He was born in Saint-Castin and died in Pau. Two of his sons were Bernard-Anselme and Joseph.
[edit] External link
 |
This Canadian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
The full tale of the Baron of Saint Castin is rarely told. I was raised in Castine, Maine, and later became fluent in French at the U. of Paris, then became a historian with a PhD at Columbia. I say this only to note that I have worked on this case. It is widely and wildly different from perception. The perception is that there was a renegade French baron named "Castin" or "Castine" who held Maine against the Anglos for many years and then faded from view. In fact, the man was a formal officer of the French crown, an ace strategist, a Latin scholar, and a man of awesome ability and dignity. In terms of his rank: a ransacking of French archives in France indicates he was , overall , the French Governor of Maine, against England. In terms of his honor: He was nearly alone, in the time, for not only taking an Indian woman as his wife (the lovely daughter of chief Madackowando), but for having every birth recorded in the Notre Dame registry in Paris. The wedding, and children, were as legitimate as that of the King of France. Compare this to the cavalier coupling with Indian women, with no heed of the consequences, which was the habit of other French and English types and you may find this more than remarkable. In terms of his importance: if you read the only reliable bio of the man, you learn that when Governor Phipps of Massachusetts sent a huge and devastating expedition to take Quebec, it was the Baron of Saint Castin who learned of it and sent his best runner, an ace Indian, all the way to that city in advance, with an urgent message that the governor there should bring in all his militia and troops and smash this invasion the instant it arrived. Which he did. In terms of his impact: he kept Maine for France for another half century. In terms of research: In 1939 an ace Montrealer named Daviault wrote LE BARON DE SAINT CASTIN, CHEF ABNAQUIS, which means "the baron of Saint Castin, a Chief of the Abnaki Nation..." ((Warning: the Abnakis now prefer this spelling -- I am not really mis-writing it!)) There is more to say about this fascinating man... one of his ancestors was the wild Gascon boy who inspired the character of d'Artagnan in the Three Musketeers! But the above should suffice. If anyone is impressed or distressed with the above, he or she should get his hands onto the bio cited above. There are also several new novels in France on the man, more positive than negative.
