Jacques-Nicolas Billaud, dit Billaud-Varenne

Descended from a lawyer's family of La Rochelle; pursued classical studies at the Collège d'Harcourt, Paris; studied law at Poitiers (1774-1778); was admitted to the bar at La Rochelle; moved to Paris; taught at the Oratorian college at Juilly; named an advocate in the Parlement of Paris (1785); criticized the ancien régime in pamphlets; was a member of the Jacobin Club and the Club of the Cordeliers; elected a deputy prosecutor of the Commune of Paris (9 Aug 1792); supported the September massacres of 1792; was elected (7 Sep 1792) to the Convention nationale (National Convention) (1792-1794) as a deputy for Paris; became one of the most prominent leaders of the Hébertists; attacked the Girondins; voted for the death sentence in the trial of King Louis XVI; was elected president of the Jacobin Club (18 Feb 1793); served as President of the National Convention (5 Sep 1793 - 19 Sep 1793); was elected a member of the Comité de salut public (Committee of Public Safety) (6 Sep 1793 - 1 Sep 1794) along with his friend, Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois; secured passage of a law giving the committee absolute authority over provincial officials (4 Dec 1793); opposed Georges Danton and contributed to his downfall and execution (5 Apr 1794); challenged the authority of Maximilien Robespierre and conspired to overthrow the Jacobin dictatorship; after the coup of 9 Thermidor, Year II (27 Jul 1794) resigned the membership in the Committee of Public Safety (1 Sep 1794); was accused of complicity with Robespierre and condemned to exile (1 Apr 1795) at the same time as Collot d'Herbois, Bertrand Barère and Marc Vadier; sent to the Isle of Oléron and then to French Guiana, where he lived until 1816; immigrated to the United States (1816); settled in Haiti (1817). Biography source: [4]