The ex-Treasurer of the Province of Quebec is descended from one of the old colonial families of Massachusetts, several members of which attained considerable distinction in the early history of that colony. The name of Colonel Benjamin Church, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, occupies a very conspicuous place in the annals of New England warfare. He was the first white settler at Seaconnet, or Little Compton, and was the most active and noted combatant of the Indians during the famous war against Metacomet, or King Philip, the great sachem of the Wampanoags. In August, 1676, he commanded the party by which King Philip was slain. The barbarous usage of beheading and quartering was then in vogue, and it is said that Church decapitated the fallen monarch of the forest with his own hands. The sword with which this act of barbarity is alleged to have been committed is still preserved in the cabinet of the Historical Society of Massachusetts, at Boston. Colonel Church kept a sort of rough minute-book, or diary, of his exploits, and it was from these minutes, and under his direction, that his son, Thomas Church, wrote his well-known history of King Philip's War, which was originally published in 1716, and which is still the highest original authority on that subject. At a later period the members of the Church family (which was very numerous and well connected) were conspicuous adherents of the Whig Party, and at the time of the breaking out of the Revolutionary War nearly all of them took the Republican side in the memorable struggle. There were, however, two exceptions, and these two both enlisted their services in the cause of King George III. One of them was killed in battle in 1776. The other, Jonathan Mills Church, was captured by the colonial army in 1777, and would doubtless have been put to death, had he not contrived to escape from the vigilance of his captors. He made his way to Canada, and ultimately settled in the Upper Province, in the neighbourhood of Brockville, where he died at a very advanced age in 1846. His son, the late Dr. Peter Howard Church, settled at Aylmer, in Ottawa County, Lower Canada, where he practised the medical profession for many years. Dr. Church had several children, and his second son, Levi Ruggles, is the subject of this sketch. The latter was born at Aylmer on the 26th of May, 1836. He received his education at the public schools of his native town, and afterwards attended for some time at Victoria College, Cobourg. He chose his father's profession, and graduated in medicine, first at the Albany Medical College, New York State, and afterwards at McGill College, Montreal, where he gained the Primary Final and Thesis Prizes, and acted as House Apothecary at the General Hospital during the years 1856-7. Becoming dissatisfied with his prospects, and believing that the legal profession presented a more suitable field for the exercise of his abilities, he determined to relinquish medicine for law. Acting upon this resolve, he studied law under the late Henry Stewart, Q.C., and afterwards under Mr. Edward Carter, Q.C., at Montreal, and was called to the Bar in the year 1859. He commenced the practice of this profession in his native town, where he has ever since resided, and where he has long since acquired high professional standing and a profitable business connection, as well as a large measure of social and political influence. He is a partner in the legal firm of Fleming, Church & Kenney, and a Governor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Lower Province.
He entered public life at the first general election under Confederation in 1867, when he successfully contested the representation of his native county of Ottawa in the Local Legislature. He espoused the Conservative side, and sat in the House throughout the existence of that Parliament. He attended closely to his duties, both in the House and as a member of various committees, and made a favourable reputation for himself as acting Chairman of the Committee on Private Bills. In July, 1868, he was appointed Crown Prosecutor for the Ottawa District, and retained that position until his acceptance of a seat in the Cabinet somewhat more than six years afterwards. At the general election of 1871, he did not seek reëlection, and for some time thereafter confined his attention to his professional duties. He was associated with Judge Drummond and Mr. Edward Carter in the Beauregard murder case as Junior Counsel for the defence. On the 22nd of September, 1874, he was appointed a member of the Executive Council of Quebec, and accepted office as Attorney-General. He was returned by acclamation for the county of Pontiac, and enjoyed a similar triumph at the general election of 1875. He continued to hold the portfolio of Attorney-General until the 27th of January, 1876, when he became Provincial Treasurer, in which capacity he repaired to England during the following summer, and negotiated a loan on behalf of his native Province. He held office as Treasurer until March, 1878, when the DeBoucherville Government was dismissed from office by M. Letellier de St. Just, the then Lieutenant-Governor, under circumstances which are already familiar to readers of these pages. Mr. Church was one of the signatories to the petition addressed to Sir Patrick L. Macdougall, who then administered affairs at Ottawa, praying for the dismissal of M. Letellier from his position as Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec. At the last general election for the Province, held in May, 1878, Mr. Church was opposed in Pontiac by Mr. G. A. Purvis, but defeated that gentleman by a majority of 225 votes, and still sits in the House for the last named constituency. On the 3rd of September, 1859, he married Miss Jane Erskine Bell, of London, England, daughter of Mr. William Bell, barrister, and niece of General Sir George Bell, K.C.B.
CHARLES, FOURTH DUKE OF RICHMOND,
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.
The Duke of Richmond's administration of affairs in Canada was not of long duration, but his high rank, and the melancholy circumstances attending his death, have invested his name with an interest which would not otherwise have attached to it. His rank was higher than that of any other Governor known to Canadian annals, and his death was due to the most terrible malady that can afflict mankind.
Charles Gordon Lennox, Duke of Richmond, Earl of March, and Baron Settrington in the peerage of England; Duke of Lennox, Earl of Darnley, and Baron Methuen in the peerage of Scotland; and Duc d'Aubigny in France, was a descendant of King Charles the Second, by the fair and frail Louise Renée de Querouaille, "whom," says Macaulay, "our rude ancestors called Madam Carwell." He was the only son of Lieutenant-General Lord George Henry Lennox, by Lady Louisa Ker, daughter of the Marquis of Lothian, and nephew of the third Duke. He was born in 1764, succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1806, and married, in 1789, Charlotte, daughter of the Duke of Gordon, by whom he had a numerous progeny. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1807 till 1813, during the Secretaryships of the Duke of Wellington and Mr.—afterwards the Right Honourable Sir Robert—Peel. Having displayed much ability in the public service, he was appointed Governor-General of Canada as successor to General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. He entered on the duties of his office in the month of July, 1818, having been accompanied across the Atlantic by his son-in-law, Major-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Upper Province.