1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rewbell, Jean François

REWBELL, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1747–1807), French politician, was born at Colmar (then in the department of Haut-Rhin) on the 8th of October 1747. He was president (bâtonnier) of the order of, aoocats in Colmar, and in 1789 was elected deputy to the States-General by the Third Estateof the bailliage of Colmar-Schlestadt. In the Constituent Assembly his oratorical gifts, legal knowledge and austerity of life gave him much influence. During the session of the Legislative Assembly he exercised the functions of procurer syndic and was subsequently secretary-general of the department of Haut-Rhin. In the Convention he was a zealous promoter of the trial of Louis XVI., but was absent on mission at the time of the king's condemnation. He took part in the reactionary movement which followed the fall of Robespierre, and became a member of the reorganized Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The moderation he displayed caused his election by seventeen departments to the Council of Five Hundred. Appointed a member of the Directory on the 1st of October 1795, he became its president in 1796, and retired by ballot in 1799. He then entered the Council of Ancients. After the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire he retired from public life, and died at Colmar on the 23rd of November 1807.

See L. Sciout, Le Directoire (Paris, 1895–97).