Church, Levi Ruggles

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Pierre-Louis Lapointe, “CHURCH, LEVI RUGGLES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/church_levi_ruggles_12E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Physician, lawyer, politician, and judge; b. 1836, probably 26 May, in Aylmer, Lower Canada, son of Peter Howard Church and Sylvia Comstock Coller, a native of Merrickville, Upper Canada; m. 3 Sept. 1859, in Montreal, Eliza Jane Erskine Bell, daughter of lawyer William Bell and niece of General George Bell; they had a son who died in infancy and three daughters; d. 30 Aug. 1892 in Montreal and was buried in Bellevue Cemetery near Aylmer.
    • Levi Ruggles Church was a grandson of loyalist Jonathan Mills Church and a descendant of Richard Church who died in Massachusetts in 1667; his father was a physician in Aylmer. The Church family was to have five generations of physicians who provided 122 years of uninterrupted medical service to Aylmer. 
    • On 7 Feb. 1859 Church was called to the bar of Lower Canada, after being articled in Montreal to Henry Stuart and Edward Carter. He returned to Aylmer and practised with Fleming and Church, which later became Fleming, Church, and Kenny.
    • In addition to pursuing his legal career, Church went into politics, a field not unknown in his family. His uncle Basil R. Church, a physician, had sat for Leeds and Grenville in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1854 until his death in April 1858. Levi ran successfully for the Conservative party and represented Ottawa riding in the Quebec Legislative Assembly from 1867 to 1871 and Pontiac from 26 Oct. 1874 until 1881. He also was a member of the cabinet under Conservative premier Charles-Eugène Boucher de Boucherville, as attorney general from 22 Sept. 1874 to 27 Jan. 1876 and treasurer until 8 March 1878, six days after Lieutenant Governor Luc Letellier* de Saint-Just dismissed the government. Church preferred the practice of law to politics, however, and subsequently he twice turned down Premier Chapleau’s invitations to join his cabinet.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1487
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8473252/levi-ruggles-church