Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Jean-Baptiste Antoine Ferland

Ferland, Jean Baptiste Antoine (1805-1865), priest and historian, was born at Montreal, Lower Canada, on December 26, 1805, the son of Antoine Ferland and Elizabeth LeBrun de Duplessis. He was educated at Nicolet College ; and in 1828 was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, and was appointed vicar at Quebec. Subsequently he served in several parishes in bower Canada . In 1841 he became professor of philosophy in Nicolet College ; and in 1848 he was appointed superior of the college. In 1855 he was appointed professor of Canadian history in Laval University, Quebec, and in 1864 dean of the faculty of Arts. He entered the field of historical writing with his Observations sur un ouvrage intitulé "Histoire du Canada", par M. L'abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg (Quebec, 1853). This was followed by Notes sur les régistres de Notre Dame de Québec (Quebec, 1854; 2nd ed., Quebec, 1863). His best known work, however, is his Cours d'histoire du Canada (2 vols., Quebec, 1861-5). He died at Quebec on January 11, 1865; and some of his work, which had appeared in the Foyer canadien and Soirées canadiennes and elsewhere, was republished posthumously in separate form - notably Opuscules (Quebec, 1876), La Gaspésie (Quebec, 1877), Louis Olivier Gamache (Quebec, 1877), and Mgr J. O. Plessis (Quebec, 1878). See H. d'Arles, Nos historiens (Montreal, 1921).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II. Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 330-331.