Jean Moreau de Séchelles (; 10 May 1690 – 31 December 1761) was a French official and politician.

Biography

Made a

maître des requêtes A Master of Requests () is a counsel of the French ''Conseil d'État'' (Council of State), a high-level judicial officer of administrative law in France. The office has existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages. The occupational title ...

on 13 October 1719, he was the intendant of Hainaut in

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...

from 1727 to 1743. He was the intendant of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

from 1743 to 1754, while simultaneously the intendant of

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

from May 1745 until 18 October 1748 during its French occupation. He was named the

controller-general of finances The Controller-General or Comptroller-General of Finances (french: Contrôleur général des finances) was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1661 to 1791. It replaced the former position of Superintendent of Finances ('' ...

, replacing

Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville, comte d'Arnouville, seigneur de Garge et de Gonesse, was born in Paris on 13 December 1701 and died on 12 July 1794 in a French Revolutionary prison. He was a French statesman, son of Louis Charles Machault ...

on 20 July 1754. He served this function until 24 April 1756. He pursued a daring economic policy, bordering

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

, while trying to straighten out the royal finances. Having the king's confidence as the

minister of state Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In ...

in 1755, he was consulted about the reversal of alliances from

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. After suffering a stroke in March 1756, his son-in-law François Marie Peyrenc de Moras was designated by

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

to replace him. He was made an honorary member of the French Academy of Sciences on 14 July 1755, its vice-president in 1756, and its president in 1757. In 1710, he bought the land of

Cuvilly Cuvilly is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. See also *Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 679 communes of the Oise department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunaliti ...

Oise Oise ( ; ; pcd, Oése) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,41 ...

, which had belonged to the lords of Séchelles. There he constructed a modern château in place of the feudal castle. He was consequently called "Moreau de Séchelles." The

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

islands, ceded to the

French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in th ...

in 1756, were named in his honor. His daughter Marie Hélène Moreau de Séchelles (1715-1798) married

René Hérault René Hérault, Seigneur de Fontaine-l'Abbé et de Vaucresson (23 April 1691 – 2 August 1740), simply known as René Hérault, and sometimes as René Hérault de Vaucresson, was a French magistrate and administrator who served as Lieuten ...

, the lieutenant general of police of Paris. From this marriage came

Jean-Baptiste Martin Hérault de Séchelles Jean-Baptiste is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King o ...

, childhood friend of

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (, , ; 12 November 1729 – August 1811) was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of the British explorer James Cook, he took part in the Seven Years' War in North America and the American Revolution ...

and father of the politician

Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles (, 20 September 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French judge, freemason and politician who took part in the French Revolution. Origins and early career Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was born in Paris int ...

References

* Lucien Bély, "Un intendant en pays occupé : Moreau de Séchelles dans les Pays-Bas pendant la guerre de Succession d'Autriche", in : ''Études sur l'Ancienne France offertes à Michel Antoine''. Text arranged by Bernard Barbiche and Yves-Marie Bercé. Memoires and documents from l'École des Chartes, n° 69, Paris. École des Chartes, February 2003, pp. 47–60 – * Cédric Glineur, ''Genèse d'un droit administratif sous le règne de Louis XV. Les pratiques de l'intendant dans les provinces du Nord (1726-1754)''. Orléans, Presses Universitaires d'Orléans, 2005, pp. 19–32 - * Cédric Glineur, "Entre libéralisme et protectionnisme : la politique pré-libérale du contrôleur général Moreau de Séchelles", in ''La Revue administrative'', n° 345 (mai 2005), pp. 290–302 - {{DEFAULTSORT:Moreau de Sechelles, Jean 1690 births 1761 deaths Officers of the French Academy of Sciences French Ministers of Finance