NECKER, SUZANNE

ne Curchod born May 1739, Crassier, Switz. died May 6, 1794, Beaulieu, near Lausanne Swiss wife of the French finance minister under Louis XVI, Jacques Necker; mother of Madame de Stal; and mistress of a brilliant Parisian salon. At first she was engaged to the English historian Edward Gibbon, but his father broke off the match. In 1764 she married Necker, then a banker, and encouraged him in his political career. Her salon attracted such figures as the naturalist Georges Buffon and the authors Jean-Franois de La Harpe and Jean-Franois Marmontel. Madame Necker also established a hospital in 1776 and was the author of several books.