Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Joseph Alfred Mousseau

Mousseau, Joseph Alfred (1838-1886), prime minister of Quebec (1882-4), was born at Berthier-en-haut, Lower Canada, in July, 1838, the son of Louis Mousseau and Sophie Duteau de Grand Pré. He was educated at Berthier Academy, and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1860 (Q.C., 1873). He was one of the founders and editors of Le Colonisateur in 1862 and L'Opinion Publique in 1870. From 1874 to 1882 he represented the county of Bagot in the Canadian House of Commons; and from 1880 to 1882 he was president of the council in the government of Sir John Macdonald. In 1882 he resigned in order to assume the prime ministry of Quebec ; but in 1884 he retired from politics, and was appointed a puisne judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. He died in Montreal on March 30, 1886. He married Marie Louise Hersetie, eldest daughter of Léopold Des Rosiers, notary public of Berthier.

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 353.