His father was Jacques de Bournon, the Seigneur of Retonfey and Gras and his mother was Marie-Anne Martinet of Nibouville.
He became an officer in the Regiment de Toul; his military career prospered and he eventually reached the rank of lieutenant which found him serving as artillery captain during the French Revolution at the garrison of Grenoble in 1789.
[1] In 1801, whilst working with Edward Charles Howard, he was the first to describe the silicate minerals, sulphides, magnetic metal grains, globules and fine-grained matrices found in meteorites and was one of the first French scholars to become convinced of the extraterrestrial origins of meteorites at a time when most scientists accepted that they originated from the Moon.
[3] Upon the recommendation of William Babington, Jacques-Louis was employed by Sir John St. Aubyn to curate and catalogue his mineral collection.
De Bournon remained loyal to Louis XVIII during his exile, going so far as to reject offers to return to France from Napoleon.