Jean de Noailles, 5th Duke of Noailles

Jean de Noailles, 5th Duke of Noailles, was a French nobleman and chemist, born in Paris on 26 October 1739 and dying on 20 October 1824. The son of the 4th duc de Noailles, a Marshal of France, he served in the army for a period, but his eminence as a chemist brought him election to the Académie des sciences in 1777. He bore the title Duc d'Ayen from 1766, became Duc de Noailles on his father's death in 1793 and was also a Knight of the Golden Fleece. He emigrated in 1792 and lived in Switzerland until the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, when he took his seat as a Peer of France. The Revolution cost him his mother, his wife and his eldest daughter, who were condemned to the guillotine in 1794, while his daughter Adrienne de La Fayette alone was spared. He remarried in 1796 and was succeeded as duke by a grandnephew.