François Laborde de Méreville

[1] In 1789, he became a member of the Committee of Thirty, which gathered in the home of Adrien Duport to prepare for the election of the deputies to the Estates General.

In 1792, he bought part of the Orléans Collection from the Brussels banker Édouard de Walckiers for nearly a million francs before transporting it to London.

Boyd and Ker were involved with politicians, allowing de Laborde to organise the money distribution network during the Revolutionary troubles, which would have a major impact on some members of the French Convention and some of Paris' city administrators.

He also made Dominique Joseph Garat minister for the interior, then financed the Exagérés' struggle against the Convention, and finally emigrated to London after March 1793.

On 6 Messidor Year III, he demanded to be removed from the list of émigrés; his mother tried to help him regularise his situation but failed.