A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs: The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861Wrong, George McKinnon
History
A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs: The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861
Wrong, George McKinnon
La Malbaie (Québec); Nairne family; Nairne, John, -1802
Nairne was not mistaken in his view that the end was near. He writes
about this time to his physician at Quebec (there was no practitioner at
Murray Bay) describing his symptoms and ends: "Now, dear Doctor, I dare
say you think some apologies necessary for my troubling you so
particularly with the complaints of an old man of 71, as his inward
machinery is probably wore out and irreparable." In a last vain hope
they took him to Quebec for medical care. But the machinery was, indeed,
"wore out," and at Quebec, on July 14th, 1802, he closed his eyes on a
world which, though it brought him labour and sorrow, he thought to be
very good.
Among his own letters is preserved the printed invitation to his
funeral:
Quebec, _Wednesday, 14th July, 1802._
Sir,--
The favour of your company is requested to attend the Funeral of
the late Colonel Nairne, from No. 1 Grison Street, on Cape Diamond,
to the place of interment, on Friday next at one o'clock in the
afternoon.
All that was most worthy in Quebec attended to do honour to his memory.
He was buried in the Protestant cemetery; long after his body was
removed to Mount Hermon Cemetery, to lie beside his son and
grandson--the last of his race.
Nairne played his part with high purpose and integrity. Among his papers
at Murray Bay is a prayer, intended apparently for daily use, in which
he asks that he may be vigilant in conduct and immovable in all good
purposes; that he may show courage in danger, patience in adversity,
humility in prosperity. He asks, too, to be made sensible "how little is
this world, how great [are] thy Heavens, and how long will be thy
blessed eternity." It is the prayer of a strong soul facing humbly and
reverently the tasks of life.[20] He would have wished to found a
community English speaking and Protestant. But the forces of nature were
against him. The few English speaking people who came in (and they were
but a few scattered individuals) for the most part married French
wives. The children held the faith and spoke the tongue which they
learned at their mothers' knees. It was the course of nature, and always
we are foolish to quarrel with nature. A granite monument marks the
resting place where the good old man sleeps in the cemetery at Quebec,
but some memorial might well stand at Murray Bay, that those who look
out upon the majestic river, the blue mountains, the smiling valley
should have before them a reminder of the "friendly, honest man" who, a
century and a half ago, began to win their heritage from the
wilderness.[21]
[Footnote 13: It may be convenient to state at once the dates of the
births and deaths of each of these children:
Magdalen (Madie) (Mrs. McNicol) born 1767 died 1839.
Christine Nairne " 1774 " 1817.
John Nairne " 1777 " 1799.
Mary (Polly) Nairne " 1782 " 1821.
Thomas Nairne " 1787 " 1813.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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