Franche-Comté, on February 22, 1758, he was declared the illegitimate child of Tiennette Vuillemot, on the baptismal certificate but this was amended in 1761, by request of Claude-Guillaume Courbe, and his wife Marie Valette, whose marriage had been celebrated on 15 August 1761, declaring that Tiennette Vuillemot's son was indeed their child, and that they had not had their names entered in the birth register for reasons of propriety.

His father Claude-Guillaume was a cavalry