DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

OLIVIER (Ollivier, Halevear), ABEL (sometimes identified as Olivier Abel), navigator; b. probably in 1683, perhaps in London, England; d. 29 May 1768 at Quebec.

An Englishman, Abel Olivier may have been among the many prisoners who were carried into New France during the War of the Spanish Succession and elected to remain. In 1731 he was described as an English gentleman from Boston and a good Catholic, and credited with 19 years’ residence in the colony. Soon after the war, around 1717, Olivier had begun sailing in colonial ships between Quebec, the West Indies, and Bordeaux. During the 1720s he became involved in several suits for unpaid wages owed by local shipowners. As late as 1750 he appears as a ship’s captain in command of a colonial vessel.

On 14 Nov. 1718, Olivier had married at Quebec a widow, Marie-Madeleine Lefebvre; their one child died before reaching maturity. In his marriage contract, dated 6 November, Olivier described himself as the son of François Olivier, merchant, and Marie Castille, “of the city of London in old England.” Ten years later he acquired land along the Rivière Saint-Charles in the seigneury of Saint-Ignace and in 1730 a lot at Pointe-aux-Lièvres on Rue Saint-Roch. Although his name continued to appear in the records as a ship’s captain, thereafter Olivier seems to have settled into semi-retirement. He received his naturalization papers in 1732, and in 1744 was still living on Rue Saint-Roch.

After the conquest, he was named in the affaire du Canada owing to an agreement that he had once made with François Bigot*, but Olivier, who was nearly 75 when it was made, had been merely a front for others. He died on 29 May 1768, aged 85 years, predeceasing his 91-year-old wife by a single day. Both were buried on 31 May. By his will he had left his belongings to his wife’s daughter, Marie-Madeleine Minet, in return for moneys advanced and the care given to him and his spouse in their old age.

Abel Olivier’s career reflects, perhaps, the kind of social mobility in New France that permitted a foreign sailor to end his days as a modest landowner.

James S. Pritchard

AD, Gironde (Bordeaux), 6B, 92, ff.56v, 88v; 313; 373. AN, Col., C8A, 35, f.6; C8B, 20, 21; C11A, 52, ff.301–3v, 304–6v; 54, f.140; 60, f.96v; 61, f.73v; 73, f.410; 76, ff.122–23; 114, f.251; F2B, 11. “Recensement de Québec, 1744” (APQ Rapport). “Recensement du gouvernement de Québec, 1762” (APQ Rapport). P.-G. Roy, Inv. contrats de mariage, IV, 89–90; Inv. ins. Cons. souv., 194; Inv. ins. Prév. Québec, II, 246; Inv. jug. et délib., 1717–1760, I, 187, 323; II, 111, 290; III, 8, 218, 231. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, I, 1; VI, 167. P.-G. Roy, Bigot et sa bande, 24445; “Le sieur Abel Olivier,” BRH, XL (1934), 224–26.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

James S. Pritchard, “OLIVIER, ABEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 29, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/olivier_abel_3E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/olivier_abel_3E.html
Author of Article:   James S. Pritchard
Title of Article:   OLIVIER, ABEL
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1974
Year of revision:   1974
Access Date:   March 29, 2024