JEAN

See also:

• FRANCOIS (1558-1614)

FRANCOIS

See also:

• JEAN FRANCOIS REWBELL (1747-1807)

REWBELL (1747-1807)  , French politician, was born at Colmar (then in the department of Haut-Rhin) on the 8th of October .1747 . He was president (bdtonnier) of the order of avocats in Colmar, and in 1789 was elected deputy to the States-General by the Third Estate of the bailliage of Colmar-Schlestadt . In the Constituent Assembly his oratorical gifts, legal knowledge and austerity of life gave him much influence . During the session of the Legislative Assembly he exercised the functions of procureur syndic and was subsequently secretary-general of the department of Haut-Rhin . In the Convention he was a zealous promoter of the trial of Louis XVI., but was absent on mission at the time of the king's condemnation . He took part in the reactionary movement which followed the fall of Robespierre, and became a member of the reorganized Committees of Public Safety and General Security . The moderation he displayed caused his election by seventeen departments to the Council of Five Hundred . Appointed a member of the Directory on the 1st of October 1795, he became its president in 1796, and retired by ballot in 1799• He then entered the Council of Ancients . After the coup d'etat of r8 Brumaire he retired from public life, and died at Colmar on the 23rd of November 1807 . See L . Sciout, Le Directoire (Paris, 1895-97) .