LeMoine, Sir James McPherson

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Roger Le Moine, “LE MOINE, Sir JAMES MacPHERSON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_moine_james_macpherson_14E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Lawyer, office holder, and author; b. 21 Jan. 1825 at Quebec and baptized 20 February in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame, son of Benjamin Le Moine (Lemoine) and Julia Ann McPherson; m. 5 June 1856 Harriet Mary Atkinson in St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at Quebec, and they had two daughters; d. 5 Feb. 1912 in Sillery, Que., and was buried 7 February in Mount Hermon Protestant Cemetery following a funeral service in the Roman Catholic church of Saint-Michel.
    • James MacPherson Le Moine’s mother came from a family of United Empire Loyalists who had settled in the Gaspé and then purchased the seigneury of Île-aux-Grues. 
    • After being articled to Joseph-Noël Bossé, he was called to the bar of Lower Canada in March 1850, and he practised law at Quebec until 1858. From then on he devoted himself wholly to his work as collector of inland revenue, an office he had held since 1847, and from 12 Oct. 1869 to 31 Dec. 1899 to his duties as an inspector in the same department. In 1860 he moved to Spencer Grange, a villa set in the heart of a 40-acre estate in Sillery. There Le Moine led a dazzling social life, frequently entertaining prominent Canadians, Europeans, and Americans from the world of letters, politics, or science. Like many Victorians who had re-embraced humanist aspirations, he accumulated knowledge about the past and about nature, which he communicated through his writings.
    • Le Moine did not always handle his material in the same way. Sometimes, as in Quebec past and present, he used it chronologically, following the practice of many historians. Sometimes he fitted it around itineraries and journeys, as in his travel guides – Picturesque Quebec, for example. This less rigid approach is ideally suited to the antiquarian, since it allows him to include every detail. He used it also .in accounts of his trips along the shores of the St Lawrence and in the Lac Saint-Jean district, and of his hunting and fishing expeditions in more distant forests. And then there are the seven volumes of Maple leaves, published from 1863 to 1906, which are collections of short articles reflecting all his concerns.
    • Le Moine was drawn to history, but he did not overlook nature, which constituted the other pole of his writing. From childhood he had been attracted by flora and fauna, and especially by birds. He made observations, collected material, and in 1860 and 1861 brought out his two-volume Ornithologie du Canada.
    • In one or other of the two languages he had spoken since childhood and had mastered, Le Moine produced a literary output dealing with many subjects and drawing on diverse disciplines. But, like many others, without his penchant for facts he probably would have been forgotten. His pages, so rich in information and eyewitness accounts of all kinds, are still a delight to those interested in the history of Quebec City and its surroundings, or in hunting, fishing, and the great outdoors of the 19th century.
  • Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=10098
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/223286121/james-macpherson-le_moine