Name Andre-Francois Deslandes | ||
Andre-Francois Boureau-Deslandes (21 May 1689 – 11 April 1757) was a French philosopher.
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Deslandes has been viewed as an important precursor of the Encylopedistes. He was appointed Commissioner of the Port of Brest in 1716, was a corresponding member from La Rochelle of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Family background
Deslandes was born into an important family in Pondichery. He was the son of Andre Boureau-Deslandes (born in Tours) and grandson of Francois Martin (1634-1706), the founder and first governor of Pondichery.
His father Andre Boureau-Deslandes played a major role in the diplomatic relations between France and Siam, then in India where he became Director General of Commerce in Bengal. On his return to France, he was sent to Saint-Domingue as an officer in the Navy of the kings of France and Spain, and inspector-general of "l'Assiente". He was ennobled by letters in 1703 and died at Leogane in 1707. In 1686 he married Deslandes' mother, Marie-Francoise, the daughter of the famous knight Martin, the governor of Pondichery. They had eight children of which six survived, including two who became clergymen. Deslandes' father brought Francois Martin's Memoirs back to France as books of manuscripts, and they were later published in three volumes.