François Fournier de Pescay (born 7 September 1771 – 8 July 1833), was a Haitian physician and surgeon.

Biography

François Fournier de Pescay was born in 1771 in Cap-Français in

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to refer ...

. He was the son of François Pescay, a planter of

, and a free black woman, Adélaïde Rappau, the first

person of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

to have practiced medicine and surgery in Europe. He was the first Director of the first University of Haiti (L'Académie d'Haïti). Fournier de Pescay began as a surgeon and doctor in 1792 in the revolutionary armies. In 1799, he left the army and moved to Brussels where he worked, and professed helped found the Brussels Medical Society for which he later became Secretary-General. In 1806, Fournier de Pescay was recalled in the Napoleonic army as a surgeon of the Imperial Guard, an elite unit created in 1806 by Napoleon I and for young people of the most aristocratic families of the old regime. In 1808, he was seconded to the Castle Valençay as personal physician to the Prince of Asturias (future Ferdinand VII of Spain) that Napoleon, having undertaken to conquer Spain to put his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne, holding prisoner. While in Valencay, Fournier de Pescay devoted his leisure to literature and published several medical books. He was then appointed Secretary of the Board of Health of hosts. This is Louis XVIII who decorated it from the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

. He retained his position at the Health Board until 1823, when he sailed for

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

with his family, occupying National High School as Director of

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

in 1824, professor of medicine and surgery Port-au-Prince and Inspector General of the Health Department. Returning to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1828, he was forced to retire to the south of France for health reasons and died near Pau. While in Haiti, he published the regulations of the "Academy of Haiti" adding Law and Medicine to the curriculum of this first Haitian University. However, following certain disappointments especially with Boyer, the Haitian president with whom he fell out, he returned to France in 1828 undermined by illness. Apart from many books related to medicine, we owe him several translations, including that of "Troubadour or Old Loves", Paris, 1812, 5 songs and poem in Romance language, Hugues de Xentrales.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fournier de Pescay, Francois 1771 births 1833 deaths Recipients of the Legion of Honour People of Saint-Domingue French military doctors French surgeons Haitian physicians French people of Haitian descent