The son of Christophe Pierre Tondu, a well-to-do merchant also churchwarden of his parish, and Elisabeth Rosalie Lebrun,[1] he was sent as a youngster as a student at College Louis-le-Grand, Paris, under benefit of a scholarship grant from the Chapter of Canons of Noyon, a common situation in such schools run by priests.
Louis-le-Grand was attended during those years by such famous-to-be people as La Fayette (a shade older than Tondu-Lebrun was), Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins (both younger), and a bunch of others that played some role in the French Revolution as well (such as Feron, Noel...).
However, his family ran into financial trouble (reasons are not known) and he had to become a teacher at Louis-le-Grand, the which position required at that time to become some level of tonsured cleric;[2] thus he was known under the name "Abbot Tondu"; he moved to be employed at the Observatory of Paris about in 1777, where he devoted himself to mathematics and observations until early 1779.
Involved in some unclear contestation of French politics, he was banned by Minister Baron de Vergennes and had to move in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège in 1781 under the name "Pierre Lebrun",[3] he became a foreman at the printing shop of Jean-Jacques Tutot, where he soon became editor.
[citation needed] Temporarily in charge of the Ministry of War after the resignation of Servan in October, on 19 and 31 December he filed reports on projects of England against France in which he supported, however, for a peace policy, and showed the protests of Spain for Louis XVI.
Brought before the revolutionary tribunal, he was sentenced to death on 7 Nivose (27 December) under a variety of contrived and undocumented treason against the unity of the Republic, conspiracy on account of foreign powers charges, the most obvious reason being of having been called to office by Roland, Brissot, Dumouriez, all guillotined or escaped from France.