troops, he baffled the superior forces of the Chatar Singh, and occupied with fifteen hundred matchlockmen the Marquella pass, and held at bay sixteen thousand Sikh troops and two thousand Afghan horse who were preparing to cross. When the battle of Gujrat,on 11 Feb. 1849, terminated the war, Abbott was still in his position at Nara, which he had held while twenty thousand Sikhs and Afghans were encamped within sight. For his services Abbott received the thanks of the governor-general of India in council, and of both British houses of parliament, the medal with clasps, and a brevet majority.
Abbott continued to rule in Hazara. In December 1852 he commanded the centre column of the successful expedition into the Black Mountains, destined to punish the Hasanzais for the murder of Messrs. Carne and Tapp, collectors of the salt tax. For his services he received the medal. He left Hazara in 1853, after entertaining the inhabitants on the Nara hill for three days and three nights. He spent all his substance on them and left with a month's pay in his pocket. Abbottabad, named after him, is a permanent memorial of his work in that country. He was made a companion of the order of the Bath, military division, on 24 May 1873, and a knight commander on 26 May 1894. Abbott retired from the active list on 1 Oct. 1877, and died at Ellerslie, Hyde, Isle of Wight, on 6 Oct. 1896. He married: (1) at Calcutta, in February 1844, Margaret Anne Harriet (d. 1845), eldest daughter of John Hutchison Fergusson of Trochraigne, near Girvan, Ayrshire, by whom he had a daughter Margaret H. A. Fergusson-Abbott; (2) in May 1868, Anna Matilda (d. 1870), youngest daughter of Major Reymond de Montmorency of the Indian army, by whom he had a son, James Reymond de Montmorency Abbott.
Abbott had both poetical feeling and literary ability. He was the author of the following works: 1. 'The T'Hakoorine, a Tale of Maandoo,' London, 1841, 8vo. 2. 'Narrative of a Journey from Heraut to Khiva, Moscow, and St. Petersburgh, during the late Russian Invasion of Khiva, with some Account of the Court of Khiva and the Kingdom of Khaurism,' London, 1843, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit., with considerable additions, 1856; 3rd edit. 1884. 3. 'Prometheus's Daughter: a Poem,' London, 1861, 8vo.
[India Office Records; Despatches; Times, 8 Oct. 1896; Vibart's Addiscombe, its Heroes and Men of Note; Stubbs's History of the Bengal Artillery; Kaye's History of the War in Afghanistan; Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers; Royal Engineers Journal, 1893; The Afghan War, 1838-42, from the Journal and Correspondence of Major-general Augustus Abbott, by C. R. Low, 1879; The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars, by Gough and Innes, 1897; private sources.]
ABBOTT, Sir JOHN JOSEPH CALDWELL (1821–1893), premier of Canada, was born at St. Andrew's, in the county of Argenteuil, Lower Canada, on 12 March 1821.
His father, Joseph Abbott (1789-1863), missionary, born in Cumberland in 1789, went to Canada as a missionary in 1818, became the first Anglican incumbent of St. Andrew's, and is still favourably known by his story of 'Philip Musgrave' (1846). He died in Montreal in January 1863. He married Harriet, daughter of Richard Bradford, the first rector of Chatham in the county of Argenteuil.
His eldest son, John Joseph, was educated privately at St. Andrew's, removed to Montreal at an early age, and entered McGill University. He took the degree of B.C.L. in 1847. Throughout his life he maintained a close connection with the university, holding the position of dean in the faculty of law for several years, and becoming subsequently one of the governors. He received in his later life the honorary degree of D.C.L.
Abbott was received as advocate at the bar of Montreal in October 1847, devoting his attention to commercial law. In 1862 he was made queen's counsel. He was appointed solicitor and standing counsel for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1880, and became director in 1887.
In company with the Redpaths, Molsons, Torrances, and others, Abbott signed in 1849 the Annexation Manifesto, the promoters of which expressed a wish that Canada should join the United States. But apart from this temporary ebullition of discontent his essential loyalty was never doubtful. On the rumour of the Trent affair in 1861 he raised a body of three hundred men called the 'Argenteuil Rangers' (now the 11th battalion of militia), proffered his services to the government, and was employed in patrolling the frontier. He was afterwards commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment.
In 1857 he contested the representation of his native county of Argenteuil. He was not returned but claimed the seat and, after an investigation that lasted two years, obtained and held it until 1874. In 1860 he published the proceedings under the title of 'The Argenteuil Election Case.' It gives a vivid picture of the ways of election committees in old Canada, and of the shifts
