François, marquis de Barbé-Marbois (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa baʁbe maʁbwa]; 31 January 1745 – 12 February 1837) was a French civil servant, diplomat, and politician.
He was ambassador of France to the United States (1784–1785), where he married the daughter of the Governor of Pennsylvania, William Moore. He then became Napoleon's Minister of the Treasury (1801–1806), before Napoleon appointed him First President of the Cour des Comptes, ("Court of Accounts"), France's supreme audit institution (1807–1814).
Contents
Early career
Born in Metz, where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the Marquis de Castries. In 1779, he was made secretary of the French legation to the United States. In 1780, Barbé-Marbois sent a questionnaire to the governors of all thirteen former American colonies, seeking information about each state's geography, natural resources, history, and government. Thomas Jefferson, who was then finishing his final term as Virginia's governor, responded to this query with a manuscript that later became his famous Notes on the State of Virginia.
Barbé-Marbois was elected a Foreign Honorary Member to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society in 1781. When the minister Chevalier de la Luzerne returned to France in 1783, Barbé-Marbois remained in America as chargé d'affaires in 1784. That year he married Elizabeth Moore, the daughter of William Moore, former governor of Pennsylvania.