Dr. Levi Ruggles Church was born on May 26, 1836, in Aylmer, Quebec.

He first studied medicine at Victoria College in Cobourg and at the Albany Medical College in New York. In 1857, he graduated from the Law School at McGill University in Montreal. He was admitted to the Bar of Lower-Canada in 1859. He practised first in Aylmer, then moved to Montreal. He became President of the "Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway" and of the "Upper Canada Towing and Steamboat". He was also Director of the "Ottawa Agricultural Insurance Co." and a member of the first Board of Directors of the Bank of Ottawa. He also served as Governor of the College of the Physicians and Surgeons of Lower-Canada. In 1867, he was elected Conservative member of the Quebec Legislative Assembly, representing the Ottawa electoral district from 1867 to 1871 and Pontiac from 1874 to 1881. In 1868, he was appointed Crown prosecutor for the district of Ottawa and became a Queen's Counsel in 1874. He served in the provincial cabinet as attorney general from 1874 to 1876. He was appointed a justice in the Court of Queen's Bench in 1887 and served in that post until January 1892.

In 1859, he married Eliza Jane Erskine Bell (1836-1900). He died on August 30, 1892, in Montreal, Quebec.