Born as the child of a day laborer father and a washerwoman mother, Lebreton entered at age seven in an indienne factory in his hometown where he was taught the printing trade on fabrics.

The taste of poetry being born in him, he was induced by the inspiration and breathed in to the impressions of his soul, his pains, joys, hopes and loves.

Richard, drew attention on him by writing a sketch of his life as a worker and thinker and contributed to the publication of a collection of his poems.

A religious poet, Lebreton, in his first poems, painted the misery of the worker without seeing no other remedy than resignation on earth and rest in heaven; Later, his outrage took a keener focus without going further.

Lebreton's great work is his Biographie normande; recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés en Normandie et sur ceux qui se sont seulement distingués par leurs actions et par leurs écrits et sa Biographie rouennaise; recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés à Rouen qui se sont rendus célèbres ou qui se sont distingués à des titres différents.