Petion

Petion de Villeneuve, Jerome (1753-94), French revolutionist, was born at Chartres, and practised as an advocate in his native town. On the summoning of the States-General (1789) he was elected deputy by the Tiers Etat of Chartres, and in December, 1790, became president of the Constituent Assembly. In November, 1791, be succeeded Bailly as mayor of Paris. In the Convention, of which he was the first president, he associated himself with the Girondists, joined in the attack on Robespierre in April, 1793, and was one of the twenty-two members proscribed in the following June. With several others of the party he escaped into Normandy, fled thence by sea to the Gironde, and lay concealed in a cave at St. Emilion, till the fear of discovery drove him and his companions to seek a new refuge. The bodies of Petion and Buzot were found in a field half-devoured by wolves.