Conrad A. Gerard de Rayneval (371)

Conrad Alexandre Gérard de Rayneval (12 December 1729–16 April 1790) was a statesman, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1779. Born in Masevaux, France, Gérard earned a doctorate of jurisprudence from the University of Strasbourg in 1749 before serving in various diplomatic positions for France. He worked as the secretary of legation at Manheim (1753-1759), the first secretary of the French embassy in Vienna (1761-1766), and immediately thereafter became the first assistant to the ministry at Versailles and then secretary of the Council of State. During this time, he negotiated treaties with American representatives, including Benjamin Franklin, and in 1788, traveled to Philadelphia to represent the French Crown as signatory. As the first accredited minister to the United States from France, Gérard’s main task was to promote the publication of sentiments which would foster a closer Franco-American alliance: most notably enlisting Thomas Paine to this end. Despite his penchant for bribery and micro-managing while a participant in American politics, Gérard earned an honorary LL.D. degree from Yale. Exhausted and falling ill, he left the United States in 1780, but returned to France to find he only had more work ahead of him: becoming Royal Praetor of Strasbourg (1780), joining the Assembly of Notables (1787), and the Estates General (1789). However, Gérard’s poor health caught up to him eventually and he died not long thereafter.