Jacques Belhomme (17 June 1737 – 18 September 1824) was a personality of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and the owner of the

Pension Belhomme The Pension Belhomme was a prison and private clinic during the French Revolution in the Rue de Charonne ( 11e arrondissement, Paris). Around 1765, the joiner Jacques Belhomme took on the construction of a building for the son of a neighbour, an ...

. He appears in the 1951 film '' Darling Caroline'' after the novel by

Jacques Laurent Jacques Laurent or Jacques Laurent-Cély (6 January 1919 – 28 December 2000) was a French writer and journalist. He was born in Paris, the son of a barrister. During World War II, he fought with the Algerian Tirailleurs. Laurent was elect ...

Life

A joiner in the village of Charonne, he was made the holder of the "pension bourgeoise", precursor to the clinics and rest homes of today, then a gaoler when the

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

s sent prisoners there from the end of 1793. He gained fame for a scandal that broke out just after his death, when the comte de Sainte-Aulaire prepared for the press an article accusing Belhomme of having profited from the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

to ransom rich suspects. As ever, the reality was more subtle.

References

* Frédéric Lenormand, ''La pension Belhomme, une prison de luxe sous la Terreur'',

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 ...

, Fayard, 2002. 1737 births 1824 deaths People of the French Revolution Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery {{France-bio-stub