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Jean Bon Saint-André (February 25, 1749 - December 10, 1813), French revolutionary, was born at Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), the son of a fuller.
Although his father was a Protestant, St André was brought up by the Jesuits at Marseille and took orders. He turned Protestant, however, and became pastor at Castres and afterwards at Montauban. The proclamation of liberty of worship made him a supporter of the Revolution, and he was sent as deputy to the Convention by the département of Lot.
He sat on the Mountain, voted for the death of Louis XVI and opposed the punishment of the authors of the September massacres. In July 1793 he was president of the Convention, entered the Committee of Public Safety the same month and was sent on mission to the Armies of the East. On September 20, 1793 he obtained a vote of one hundred million francs for constructing vessels, and from September 1793 to January 1794 reorganized the military harbours of Brest and Cherbourg.
In May 1794 he took part with Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse in a fight with the English. Finally, after a mission in the south, which lasted from July 1794 to March 1795 and in which he showed great moderation, he was arrested on May 28, 1795, but was released by the amnesty of the year IV. He was then appointed consul at Algiers and Smyrna (1798), was kept prisoner by the Turks for three years, and subsequently became prefect of the départment of Mont-Tonnerre (1801) and commissary-general of the three departments on the left bank of the Rhine. He died at Mainz on the 10 December 1813.
References
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The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, in turn, gives as a reference:
- Levy-Schneider, Le Conventionnel Jean bon St André (Paris, 1901).fr:Jean Bon Saint-André