Item 0014 - Letter, 16 February 1872

Rev. Rieul Prisque Duclos was born March 29, 1835, in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec.

He was a pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He received his early education at Pointe aux Trembles College. He took his classical and theological courses in Geneva, Switzerland, an important center of Protestantism. Baptized Catholic, Duclos converted to Protestantism. In 1860, after his marriage, he returned to Canada and became the first French Canadian to be ordained a Reformed pastor. He was appointed to the town of Joliette. Later he served in Montreal, St. Hyacinthe (1871-1876), and Quebec. He is the author of the book “Histoire du protestantisme français au Canada et aux États-Unis” (1913). In the 1880s, he was in charge of L'Aurore, the Montreal weekly of the French-speaking Protestants in Quebec. Duclos village in the Outaouais region in Quebec is named after him.

In 1860, he married Sophie Adèle Jeanrenaud (1836–1908). He died on September 13, 1912, in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland and is buried in Montreal, Quebec.