Antoine Joseph Marie d'Espinassy

[2] d'Espinassy was born August 13, 1757, in Marseille, Kingdom of France and was later baptized at the Notre-Dame des Accoules Church, to his mother the ( Lady ) Marie Magdeleine Garoutte-Lascour and his father the ( General ) Cèsar Antoine Espinassy-Venel.

[3] His father was Cèsar Antoine Espinassy-Venel who was said to be a 6-Generation separation from the Duke of Berry Louis-Auguste who became the King of France as Louis XVI.

His mother's Maternal grand-father was the baron Henri de Lascour or d'Lascour abbreviated who was the 1st cousin of the King of France stylized as Louis XIV due to Henri de Lascour being descended from the King of France, Louis IX.

His father belonged to a cadet branch of French Royal and noble family of Lazarin d'Espinassy.

d'Espinassy came into early service in the French Colonial Army as a Captain of the Artillery and when he showed great enthusiasm for this and after coming up with brilliant ideas he was then elected to the Legislative Assembly on September 12, 1791.

I will join with you and continue our work, spend the rest of my days with you in the happiness of my country, and die if necessary to fulfill this sacred duty.

After the Restoration of the Bourbon Dynasty to France he and his family became Enemies of the State for their support and actions in the French Revolution and they fled to Lausanne, Switzerland where they changed their name to de Fontanelle which was the name of Joseph's wife, to evade any detection and capture by the newly established King of France, Louis XVIII and his assassins.

The nobles of Provence had resisted the expansion of the Bourbons for a century and had their own aristocracy of Gallo-Roman stock and culture.