Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (December 14, 1739 – August 7 1817), was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
noblemen,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
,
economistAn economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, and government official, who was the father of
Eleuthère Irénée du PontÉleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours , known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born Huguenot chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company...
, the founder of
E.I. duPont de Nemours and CompanyE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont or Du Pont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company in terms of market capitalization and...
, patriarch and progenitor of one of America's richest business dynasties of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Pierre du Pont was born December 14, 1739, the son of Samuel Dupont and Anne Alexandrine de Montchanin.
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (December 14, 1739 – August 7 1817), was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
noblemen,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
,
economistAn economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, and government official, who was the father of
Eleuthère Irénée du PontÉleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours , known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born Huguenot chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company...
, the founder of
E.I. duPont de Nemours and CompanyE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont or Du Pont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company in terms of market capitalization and...
, patriarch and progenitor of one of America's richest business dynasties of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Early life and family
Pierre du Pont was born December 14, 1739, the son of Samuel Dupont and Anne Alexandrine de Montchanin. His father was a watchmaker and
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
Protestant or
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
. His mother was a member of an impoverished noble family from Burgundy. He married Nicole Charlotte Marie Louise le Dée de Rencourt in 1766, also of a minor noble family. They had two grown children, including
Eleuthère Irénée du PontÉleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours , known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born Huguenot chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company...
, the founder of
E.I. duPont de Nemours and CompanyE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont or Du Pont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company in terms of market capitalization and...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Ancien Régime
With a lively intelligence and high ambition, du Pont became estranged from his father, who wanted him to be a watchmaker, and developed a wide range of acquaintances with access to the French court. Noblesse de lettres: Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours made noble by "lettres patentes" (letters patent) from the king
Louis XVILouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
1784. Eventually he became the protege of Dr.
François QuesnayFrançois Quesnay was a French economist of the Physiocratic school. He is known for publishing the "Tableau économique" in 1758 , which provided the foundations of the ideas of the Physiocrats...
, the personal physician of
Louis XVLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
's mistress,
Madame de PompadourJeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour , was a member of the French court, and was the official maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV from 1745 to 1750....
. Quesnay was the leader of a faction known as the
économistes, a group of
liberalsLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
at the court dedicated to economic and agricultural reforms. By the early 1760s Pierre Samuel’s writings on the national economy had drawn the attention of intellectuals like
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher known for his wit and his defense of civil liberties, including both freedom of religion and free trade.Voltaire was a prolific writer and produced works in almost every...
and
TurgotAnne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, often referred to as Turgot , was a French economist and statesman...
. His book
Physiocracy, which advocated low tariffs and
free tradeFree trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services....
among nations, deeply influenced
Adam SmithAdam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
.
In 1774 he was invited by King Stanislas Augustus of Poland to organize that country’s educational system.
He served as Inspector General of Commerce under Louis XVI, helped negotiate the
treaty of 1783The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ratified by the Congress of the Confederation on January 14, 1784 and by the King of Great Britain on April 9, 1784 , formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America, which had...
, by which Great Britain formally recognized the independence of the United Sates, and arranged the terms of a commercial signed by France and England in 1786.
French Revolution
He was initially a supporter of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
and served as president of the
National Constituent AssemblyThe National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.-Background:...
. At this time, he added the name of the
NemoursNemours is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Geography:Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c...
district south of Paris to his name to distinguish himself from other du Ponts in the Assembly.
He and his son
Eleuthère Irénée du PontÉleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours , known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born Huguenot chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company...
were among those who physically defended
Louis XVILouis XVI of France ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21...
and
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette ; was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I....
from a mob besieging the Tuileries Palace in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
during
the insurrectionOn 10 August 1792, during the French Revolution, a mob—with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune—besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and the royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly. This proved to...
of August 10, 1792. He was condemned to the
guillotineThe guillotine was a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim's head from their body...
during the
Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known as the The Terror was a period of violence that occurred four years and two months after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the...
, but his execution was still pending when Robespierre fell on 9 Thermidor and he was spared. He married Françoise Robin 5 Vendémiaire an IV (27 September 1795). (Robin was the daughter of Antoine Robin de Livet, a French aristocrat who lived in Lyon, and the widow of Pierre Poivre, the noted French administrator.) After his house was sacked by a mob in 1797 during the events of 18 Fructidor, he and his entire family left for the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1799. They hoped (but failed) to found a model community of French exiles.
In the United States, he developed strong ties with industry and government, in particular with
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
. Pierre engaged in informal
diplomacyDiplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war,...
between the United States and France during the reign of Napoleon. He was the originator of an idea that eventually became the
Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of the French territory Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, as a way to avoid French troops landing in New Orleans, and possibly sparking armed conflict with U.S. forces.
Eventually, he would settle in the U.S. permanently; he died there in 1817.
His son,
Eleuthère IrénéeÉleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours , known as Irénée du Pont, or E.I. du Pont, was a French-born Huguenot chemist and industrialist who immigrated to the United States in 1799 and founded the gunpowder manufacturer, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company...
, founded what would become one of the largest and most successful American corporations:
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and CompanyE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont or Du Pont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company in terms of market capitalization and...
.
See also
- Du Pont family
The du Pont family is an American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours . The son of a Paris watchmaker and a member of a Burgundian noble family, he and his sons, Victor Marie du Pont and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, emigrated to the United States in 1800 and used the resources of...
for other family members and relationships.
- Commission of National Education
The Commission of National Education was the central educational authority in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created by the Sejm and king Stanisław August Poniatowski on October 14, 1773...
External links