Jacques Abbadie was born at Nay, Béarn, probably in 1654, although 1657 and 1658 have been given; he is "most probably the Jacques Abbadie who was the third child of Violente de Fortaner and Pierre Abbadie, baptized on 27 April 1654." Samuel Smiles stated that he was "the scion of a distinguished Béarnese family"; although it is probable that the poverty of his parents would have excluded him from a learned career if some of the leading Protestants of the district had not charged themselves with the expenses of his education, which was begun under M. Jean de la Placette, the minister of Nay, He studied at Puylaurens, the Academy of Saumur, and the Academy of Sedan, receiving the degree of doctor in theology, it is said, at the age of seventeen. An obituary notice, however, which appeared in the "Daily Courant" for 5 October 1727, says: "He was not above twenty-two when he undertook of himself his admirable treatise on the "Truth of the Christian Religion"".