Born in 1758 and a deputy to the Convention.

Here is the incredible daguerreotype of a man born during the reign of Louis XV, a deputy of the Revolution. He saw Louis XVI face to face.

Jean-Jacques Fockedey was born on February 15, 1758, in Dunkirk.

His parents, who were fairly well-off, encouraged him to obtain his doctorate in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier in 1781.

In 1791, Jean-Jacques Fockedey was appointed headmaster of the Jesuit college in Dunkirk, while continuing to practice medicine.

He was elected deputy for the Nord department to the National Convention, where he sat among the moderates, on September 3, 1792.

During the trial of Louis XVI, he declared:

“Louis is the cause of the deaths of several thousand French people, of the devastation of our lands, and of the destruction of our commercial relations; but the preserving principle of the entire Republic is not to compromise, by our judgment, either the safety or the property of those who send us here. For these reasons, and as a legislator, I vote for detention until the Republic is no longer in danger.”

In the same spirit, and with the desire to save the king from the guillotine, he declared during the session of December 29, 1792: “Is the blood of a man who was once king so absolutely necessary that we should not take into account the blood of the thousands of citizens it would cost to shed it? I would like to make you sparing of French blood!”

Jean-Jacques resigned for health reasons on April 2, 1793.

After resigning from the National Convention, Jean-Jacques Fockedey joined the National Guard as an ordinary soldier, never failing in his duty.

A victim of the Terror, he was charged on November 22, 1793, and remained imprisoned in Arras under deplorable conditions until January 1794, when he was released for health reasons but kept under surveillance at his residence. Jean-Jacques resumed his medical practice only in 1795 and, living in constant fear of forced conscription, continued to practice until 1822.

He then retired to his daughter’s home in Hondschoote, and later, in 1828, to Bergues, where he served as deputy mayor from 1833 to 1837. Finally, it was at his grandson’s home in Marcq-en-Barœul that he died, on May 10, 1853.

Thanks to Olivier Landi, who introduced me to this incredible portrait.