FOULLON, JOSEPH FRANCOIS (1717-1789), French administrator, was born at Saumur. During the Seven Years' War he was intendant-general of the armies, and intendant of the army and navy under Marshal de Belle-Isle. In 1771 he was appointed intendant of finances. The farmers-general detested him on account of his severity, the Parisians on account of his wealth; he was reported, probably quite without foundation, to have said, "If the people cannot get bread, let them eat hay." After the fall of the Bastille in 1789 he fled from Paris, but was seized, brought to the hotel de ville, and, in spite of the intervention of Lafayette, was dragged out by the people and hanged to a lamp-post on July 22, 1789.
See Eugene Bonnemere, Histoire des paysans (4th ed., 1887), tome iii. ; C. L. Chassin, Les Elections et les cahiers de Paris en 1789 (Paris, 1889), tomes iii. and iv.