[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. |
[14] See Appendix D., p. [277]., for a formal memorandum drawn up by Nairne for his son's guidance.
[15] See Appendix E., p. [279]. "The 'Porpoise' (Beluga or White Whale) Fishery on the St. Lawrence."
[16] "Les Anciens Canadiens," Chapter IV.
[17] Sir Alexander Mackenzie who accomplished in 1793 what was then the astonishing feat of crossing the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and whose book, "Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence, through the Continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans," first published in 1801, attracted general attention, including even that of Napoleon Bonaparte.
[18] John Warren, the ancestor of the numerous family at Murray Bay of that name.
[19] Warren, Nairne's neighbour, had been visiting Quebec apparently for business reasons.
[20] See Appendix F., p. [286], for this Prayer of Colonel Nairne.
[21] The inscription to be placed on Nairne's tomb was long a subject of debate in the family. Two drafts remain at Murray Bay, both copious in length, and neither like the inscription now to be found at Mount Hermon Cemetery. (See p. [221].) In the taste of the time inscriptions were expected to give a full account of the career of the dead man. One of these inscriptions speaks of Nairne's "enjoying as a reward of his services a gift of Land on the River St. Lawrence. He had alike the merit and the happiness of converting a wild and uninhabited desert into a flourishing colony of above 1000 inhabitants, who regarded him as their Tender Friend and Patriarch. He died honoured with the esteem of all who knew him." The other inscription mentions what, otherwise, we should not have known, that Nairne received a wound on the Plains of Abraham. It goes on in verse: