1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chaumette, Pierre Gaspard

CHAUMETTE, PIERRE GASPARD (1763–1794), French revolutionist, was born at Nevers. Until the Revolution he lived a somewhat wandering life, interesting himself particularly in botany. He was a student of medicine at Paris in 1790, became one of the orators of the club of the Cordeliers, and contributed anonymously to the Révolutions de Paris. As member of the insurrectionary Commune of the 10th of August 1792, he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full power to arrest suspects. He was accused later of having taken part in the massacres of September, but was able to prove that at that time he had been sent by the provisional executive council to Normandy to oversee a requisition of 60,000 men. Returning