[1] He was appointed Commissioner of the Port of Brest in 1716, was a corresponding member from La Rochelle of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
He was the son of André Boureau-Deslandes (born in Tours) and grandson of François Martin (1634–1706), the founder and first governor of Pondichéry.
His father André 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.
In 1686 he married Deslandes' mother, Marie-Françoise, the daughter of the famous knight Martin, the governor of Pondichéry.
[3] Deslandes' father brought François Martin's Memoirs back to France as books of manuscripts, and they were later published in three volumes.