Jean Chouan was the nom de guerre of the Frenchman, Jean Cottereau, who was born at Saint-Berthevin, near Laval, in the department of Mayenne on 30 October 1757 and died 18 July 1794 at Olivet, also in Mayenne. He was a counter-revolutionary, an insurrectionist, and a staunch royalist.Of the four Cottereau brothers, — Jean, Pierre, François, and René, — Jean, the second-born, was the one called chouan ("the silent one") by their father.