Gohier, Louis-Jérôme - Archontology
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Gohier, Louis-Jérôme

Louis-Jérôme Gohier

b. before or on 27 Feb 1746, Semblançay, Indre-et-Loire [1]
d. 29 May 1830, Montmorency, near Paris

Title: Président du Directoire exécutif de la République française (President of the Executive Directory of the French Republic)
Term: 23 Sep 1799 - 10 Nov 1799
Chronology: 23 Sep 1799, installed as President, meeting of the Executive Directory, Palais du Luxembourg, Paris [2]
10 Nov 1799, Executive Directory recognized as not existing, Law of 19 brumaire, Year VIII, passed by the Council of Ancients, galerie d'Apollon (grande galerie), Palais de Saint-Cloud, Saint-Cloud [3]
Names/titles: Membre du Directoire exécutif de la République française (Member of the Executive Directory of the French Republic) [18 Jun 1799 - 10 Nov 1799] (see details)
  Baptized (27 Feb 1746): Louis-Hyerôme Gohier
Biography:
Educated by the Jesuits at Tours; admitted to the bar as a lawyer of the Parlement of Brittany; elected to the Assemblée nationale législative (Legislative National Assembly) (1791-1792) as a representative of Ille-et-Vilaine; member of the legislation committee; served in the general secretariat of the ministry of justice (1792); appointed justice minister (20 Mar 1793 - 1 Apr 1794); served as president of the criminal tribunal and a judge of the arbitration tribunal of the Seine département; was placed on the list of candidates at elections to the Directoire exécutif (Executive Directory), but failed to receive the majority of votes (8 Sep 1797, 9 Sep 1797, 15 May 1798, 16 May 1799); elected member of the Executive Directory (17 Jun 1799) and replaced Jean-Baptiste Treilhard; served as President of the Directory (23 Sep 1799 - 10 Nov 1799); signed resignation as Directory member (10 Nov 1799) under the pressure of an envoy of general Napoléon Bonaparte; after the coup of 18 Brumaire returned to private life; accepted nomination as general commissar for commercial relations with the Batavian Republic and general consul in Amsterdam (1802-1810).
Biographical sources: "Louis-Jérôme Gohier, l'homme qui a dit non à Bonaparte", by Jacques Gohier and Patrick Rose (Le Coudray-Macouard: Cheminements, 2009).

[1] The date of birth is omitted from baptismal record dated 27 Feb 1746 and preserved in the Archives of the Indre-et-Loire département, register of baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish of Saint-Martin, Semblançay, 1730-1754, 6NUM7/245/005, p. 154 (digital copy). It was also published in "Dictionnaire géographique, historique et biographique d'Indre-et-Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine", ed. by J.-X. Carré de Busserolle (Tours: Imprimerie Rouillé-Ladevéze, 1880), 3:216.
[2] Archives nationales, AF* III 17.
[3] The Council of Ancients received a message from the secretary general of the Executive Directory at about 15:30 10 Nov 1799 (19 brumaire an VIII) (Gazette nationale ou Le Moniteur universel, No. 51, 21 brumaire an VIII), notifying the Council that four members of the Directory resigned and the fifth (Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès) was taken into custody on orders of General Bonaparte. The actual resignations of Gohier, Jean-François-Auguste Moulin and Pierre Roger-Ducos were submitted neither to the Council of Five Hundred, nor to the Council of Ancients.