François-André Isambert

M. Isambert
in a crowd in the 1840 painting.
Born	1792 Aunay-sous-Auneau, Eure-et-Loir
Died	1857
Resting place	Montmartre Cemetery
Nationality	French
Occupation	Lawyer, politician

François-André Isambert (November 30, 1792 – April 13, 1857) was a French lawyer, historian, and politician. Isambert was founder and for an extended period contributor of the Gazette des Tribunaux and actively participated in Louis François Wolowski's Revue de législation et de jurisprudence.

Born in Aunay-sous-Auneau, Eure-et-Loir, Isambert studied law, was deputy of the colonies and, in 1818 (under the Second Restoration of the Bourbons), an attorney at the Cassation Court. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, he worked for legislative and administrative reforms in the colonies, and was noted for his attacks on the Roman Catholic Church.

He protested against the Ordinances of the year 1830 in the name of the bar, and thus sided with the Revolution and the July Monarchy. He went among the first to the town hall, where he was named by the provisional government director of the Bulletin de Lois. Named counsel at the cassation court on August 27, he edited the Constitutional Charter, and joined the Chamber of Deputies in October of that year.

In the painting of the 1840 Anti-Slavery convention there is a figure to the left described as "M.M.Isambert" and in the centre is John Scoble the secretary of the British Anti-Slavery group who organised the convention. Francois Isambert had been in correspondence with Scoble and he was an active figure in trying to free the French slaves.

Isambert voted for the government of Jacques Laffitte, but joined the opposition under the minister Casimir Perier. In 1834, he founded the Société pour l'abolition de l'esclavage, a militant abolitionist organisation.