Armand Joseph Dubernad

Armand Joseph Dubernad was born the November 23 1741, in Bayonne. He died May 9 1799, in Morlaix.

Armand Joseph Dubernad is a merchant, a French and Spanish financier, Freemason, Consul general of the Holy Roman Empire, deputy, mayor, and cofounder of the first Jacobin Club of Brittany.

Biography

Dubernard is the son of a middle-class man of Bayonne. But, its family came coming from La Bastide-Clairence and before that from Laplume, in the north of Gascony.

Before the Revolution

When the French revolution starts, Armand Joseph Dubernad has several companies of trades with China, Europe,Eastern and Western Indies, with Morlaix, Seville and Cadiz. It is one of the principal shareholders of the bank of Saint-Charles and various companies which finance great work and contribute to reduce the Spanish debt. His close cousin, the count François Cabarrus, is Ministre of the king Charles III of Spain. His cousins, the Lesseps, his father-in-law, his brother-in-law and his brother are diplomatic wealthy persons. Dubernad also plays a part of precursor in the field of marine insurance.

Born in Bayonne, it is nevertheless with Morlaix that it creates the Chamber of commerce and a maritime line with the Andalusia. Thanks to him and to its family, the productions of the Low-Brittany no longer pass by Saint-Malo.

This filled man nevertheless was persecuted by the Inquisition with Cadiz. Perhaps partly because of this combat, we find him speaker of principal the Masonic Lodge of Morlaix, the "Ecole des moeurs" (=School of manners), and with "The Room of literature and policy". Like the men of his in-laws, he is mayor and a fighter as of 1783 against the abuses which the bishops and the aristocrats make.

During the Revolution

He is elected, in 1788, is appointed deputy of the Third Estate in Rennes, then appointed Sénéchaussée of Morlaix, and becomes one of the active members of the Breton Club. In 1789, Armand Joseph Dubernad is quoted in first among the writers of the "Cahiers de Doléances" (= Register of grievances) of the city. In 1790, he is the cofounder of the first Jacobin Club of Brittany, of which he will be often the president and the best speaker with his friend, Bouëstard de La Touche. In 1791, it rents the manufacture of tobacco, thus allowing it possible 200 workmen morlaisiens not to know indigence. He adds to his activities that of Armateur Corsaire.

During the Terror, Armand Joseph Dubernad rebuilt one of the castles of the wife of Philippe Egalité, "La Bourdaisière", near from Montlouis destroyed following a whim of Etienne François de Choiseul.

But at that time, in Spain, his brother and his cousin François Cabarrus are imprisoned. In France, members of its family are persecuted, in particular, the future Thérésa Tallien, "Notre-Dame de Thermidor".

After Thermidor, in the night of the 14 to 15 Vendémiaire An IV (6 October to 7th, 1795), a poster is placarded with Morlaix, denouncing Dubernad as an "aristocrat, royalist and banker of Charette". It was signed by the brother of the Général Moreau and by others former prisoners of the revolutionary jails.

Dubernad dies at the same time as the French Revolution in 1799, almost ruined because of the English blockade. Ruin also caused by its gifts or loans to help the poor or to finance the revolutionary festivals. But the ideas of the men of 1789, often of noble origins who sacrificed their privileges did not die with them.

The family

His father-in-law and then his brother-in-law, Jean and Gaspard Lannux de La Chaume are Consuls of Spain in France, before the Revolution. His son married the daughter of Michel Behic, niece of the first French constitutional bishop, Louis-Alexandre Expilly de la Poipe, and also sister-in-law of the brother of the Général Moreau.

Armand Joseph Dubernad is Consul general of the Holy Roman Empire in Morlaix. His brother, Salvat du Bernad, in the same time, is before the French Revolution, a rich trader and a very important financier of Seville and the Consul of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in France and Spain. But, his brother will be imprisoned as of the entry in war of the Spain to have supposedly wanted to set fire to the manufacture of the tobaccos of Seville. During the Peninsular War, he will be the consular agent of France, in Seville until in 1812.

His grand-daughter, Francoise Gaudelet d'Armenonville will marry Auguste de Rambaud, who is the son of Agathe de Rambaud, then in her second marriage to the count Amédée d'Allonville.

His grandson, the captain Henry Dubernad is the nephew of the french Vice Admiral Jacques Bergeret. In 1796, his uncle, Bergeret, as captain of the frigate 'La Virginie', was captured by Sir Edward Pellew in the "Indefatigable". An English offer to exchange him for Sir Sidney Smith was refused by the French. On Smith's escape in 1798, Bergeret was sent home unconditionally by the English.

References

* Guy de Rambaud, "Dubernad, un financier au servicex de la Révoution " (handwritten)
* Guy de Rambaud, "Pour l'amour du Dauphin", Anovi 2005, ISBN: 2-91418-02-5, biography of Agathe de Rambaud