Jean-Jacques Duval d'ÉPRÉMESNIL (1745–1794), a councilor in - Lot 15

Jean-Jacques Duval d'ÉPRÉMESNIL (1745–1794), a councilor in the Parliament of Paris, was one of the leaders of the parliamentary opposition; a deputy representing the Nobility (Paris outside the city walls) in the Estates-General and the Constituent Assembly, he vehemently opposed the Revolution; having refused to emigrate, he was guillotined. Letter from the author, May 19, 1788; 1½ pages, in-4 format (portrait enclosed). Regarding his deportation to the Sainte-Marguerite Islands... The King’s order “did not stipulate that I be imprisoned at the Château des Îles Sainte-Marguerite, but only that I be arrested and taken to the Sainte-Marguerite Islands.” But the Chevalier de Mongran, commander of the island, wishes to detain him at the castle. D’Épremesnil suffers from “abdominal pains resembling renal colic. A little fresh air and exercise are very necessary for me. [...] the frankness of my character is well known. I am incapable of engaging in any activity outside the castle—I do not mean any suspicious correspondence, but rather any kind of correspondence whatsoever that is in the slightest way contrary to the regulations of the place where I reside”... Enclosed is a letter addressed to a third party, dated November 15, 1776 (half-page, in-4 format), addressed to the author of a treatise on “poisonous drugs,” expressing the hope “that we may succeed in eliminating all the poisons that ambition and avarice extract from the bosom of the earth and the heart of man.”