Mathieu-François Pidansat de Mairobert

Mathieu-François Pidansat Mairobert (born 20 February 1727 in Chaource; died 27 March 1779 in Paris) was a French writer.

Biography
He was the son of François Pierre Pidansat, bailiff of the Duchy-Peerage of Aumont and commissioner lieutenant judge for the municipality of Paris (1727), and of Nicole Picardat. He was also the maternal uncle of Jean Nicolas Jacques Parisot (1757–1838).

Raised by Marie Anne Doublet de Persan, whom he claimed as his mother, he soon found himself involved in the conversations and quarrels of the literary world. He held the position of royal censor and the title of secretary of the king for the Duke of Chartres. Until his death, he also contributed to the cultural and political chronicle Mémoires Secrets, traditionally attributed to Louis Petit de Bachaumont. His close ties to the "Parti Patriote" and connections with Restif de la Bretonne led him to be monitored by the police.

In 1779, he was implicated in the trial of the Marquis de Brunoy, for whom he was a creditor for a considerable sum. Although it was believed he was merely acting as an agent for a higher authority, the Parlement of Paris issued a public reprimand against him by decree on 27 March 1779. Feeling disgraced, Mairobert went to a bathhouse that evening, where he first opened his veins with a razor in the bath before ending his life with a pistol. The parish priest of the Church of St. Eustache in Paris consented to bury him only upon the King's express order. Restif de la Bretonne mourned him bitterly and visited his house every year on the anniversary of his suicide to commemorate the date.

Works

 * Querelle de M.M. de Voltaire et de Maupertuis (1753)
 * Correspondance secrète, et familière du chancelier de Maupeou avec Sorhouet (1771, in-12), a radical pamphlet reprinted under the title of Maupeouana (1773, 2 vol. in-12)
 * Principes sur la Marine, (manuscript in-8°, 1775).
 * Anecdotes sur la comtesse du Barry (London, 1775, in-12 ), one of the best sellers of the late 18th century, attributed to Charles Théveneau de Morande.
 * L'Observateur anglais (London [Amsterdam], 1777-1778, 4 vol. in-12), several times reprinted under the title of l’Espion anglais (lire en ligne)
 * Lettres de "Madame du Barry (London, 1779, in-12).