Details of Céré's life, on which the following account is based, have been researched by J. Deleuze [REF].
Jean-Nicolas Céré was the son of François-Toussaint Céré, a naval officer who, according to the memoirs of Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, was at the age of five posted to France to study, his father having died in Martinique.