Mathieu de Lesseps

Mathieu Maximilien Prosper de Lesseps (4 March 1771—28 December 1832) was a French diplomat and high ranking public official who served, from 1797 until his death, in numerous foreign and domestic posts.

Born in the German city of Hamburg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, young Mathieu, the son of diplomat Martin de Lesseps (1730–1807) and his wife Anna Caysergues (1730–1823), spent his childhood there, and then in the capital of the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, where his father was the French Consul General.

They had the following children: Following his first major assignment, as French consul to Morocco, de Lesseps was posted, in 1800, as liaison to the Egyptian Army and as superintendent of trade relations.

In 1815, during the Hundred Days of Napoleon, he was Prefect of Cantal from 6 to 15 April and on 16 May was appointed special temporary inspector of the 19th Military Division, until relieved of duty on 14 July, following the second restoration of King Louis XVIII.

In the nearby historic city of Carthage, which in modern times has become a suburb of Tunis, Mathieu de Lesseps' tomb bears a lengthy graven inscription detailing the accomplishments of his public service.

Portrait, dated to late 1790s, as reproduced in De Lesseps intime , an 1899 family biographical study. Caption: "Mathieu de Lesseps, father of Ferdinand."
Tomb of Mathieu Maximilien Prosper de Lesseps in the Tunisian city of Carthage