He was born in
Châteauroux and baptised the following day. to
Claude Dupin (squire, lord of
Chenonceaux, receiver general of finances for
Metz and
Alsace then secretary to the king and fermier général) and his wife Marie Jeanne Bouilhat. On 25 December 1728 Claude was made secretary to the king, allowing him and his descendants to acquired nobility in the first degree. Louis-Claude took the title 'de Francueil' - he extended the Chenonceau estate (owned by his family since 1733) to include that village. To differentiate the families his half brother
Jacques-Armand became 'Dupin de
Chenonceaux'. In Paris on 15 May 1737 he married Suzanne Bollioud from Saint-Jullien. They only had one child, Madeleine-Suzanne Dupin de Francueil, born in Paris on 14 July 1751. Suzanne died in Paris on 3 September 1754 aged thirty-five. Aged sixty-one he married again, this time in the chapel of the French embassy in London on 14 January 1777 due to fear of opposition from the French court or their families. His new wife was
Marie-Aurore de Saxe, thirty-three years his junior, an illegitimate daughter of
marshal de Saxe and widow of the count of Horn. On returning to France their marriage was confirmed in Paris on 15 April the same year. Their son
Maurice Dupin de Francueil later became chef d'escadron in the 1st Hussar Regiment and was father of author
George Sand. For a time Louis Dupin de Francueil was the lover of
Louise d'Épinay. They had two children, including
Jean-Claude Leblanc de Beaulieu (future
bishop of Rouen then of Soissons, Laon and Saint-Quentin). He introduced her to
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, then secretary to his mother-in-law
Madame Dupin. Hoping to gain entry into the
Académie des sciences, he had Rousseau begin a book of popular science, but it was never completed. Louis Dupin de Francueil died in his hôtel particulier at 15
rue du Roi-de-Sicile in the parish of
Saint-Gervais in Paris. ==Bibliography (in French)==