Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux (1640, Paris – 9 January 1688, Paris) was a French magistrate

Magistrate

A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

, intendant of Soissons

Soissons

Soissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about northeast of Paris. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones...

, and Président à mortier

Président à mortier

The office of président à mortier was one of the most important legal posts of the French ancien régime. The présidents were principal magistrates of the highest juridical institutions, the parlements, which were the appeal courts....

 of the Parliament of Paris. The descendant of an ancient family from Béarn

Béarn

Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...

, Mesmes was count

Count

A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...

 of Avaux

Avaux

Avaux is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France.-Population:...

, viscount

Viscount

A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...

 of Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne

Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne

Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-References:*...

, Lord of Moissy-Cramayel

Moissy-Cramayel

Moissy-Cramayel is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the metropolitan area of Paris southeast from the center in the "new town" of Sénart, created in the 1970s....

, provost and master of ceremonies of the Ordre des Chevaliers du Saint-Esprit from 1671 to 1684, and the second member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

 in 1676. His son Jean-Antoine de Mesmes

Jean-Antoine de Mesmes

Jean-Antoine de Mesmes was a Parisian magistrate and member of the Académie française.He was the son of Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, himself a member of the Académie française from 1676 to 1688....

was elected to the Academy in 1710.