He was the son of Michel IV Bégon and his wife Claude Viart. The Bégon family was an established court family, producing as many justices as finance ministers. Michel V devient became garde des Sceaux of the présidial of Blois then president of the tribunal. He only entered the naval administration late in life, aged around 40, when Colbert made him treasurer of the marine du Levant at Toulon : this was the start of a happy career. Bégon later left the shores of the Mediterranean for north-western France, becoming commissaire général de la marine at Brest then at Le Havre. He crossed the Atlantic to take up office as intendant of the Windward Islands. On his return from the Antilles, he won a new post with the Levant fleet which he had awaited since 4 November 1684, the date of his nomination to the post of intendant des galères at Marseille. Michel V was seigneur of Picardière and Mirbelin, and also possessed an estate at Saint-Pierre on Martinique, which he sold in 1684 on leaving the Antilles. He was made Intendant of Saint-Domingue and set up his headquarters in the east of the island, Haiti, where he and Bertrand D'Ogeron got involved in the spice trade. In 1686, he became conseiller honoraire of the Parlement d’Aix. On 1 September, Michel V Bégon became intendant of Rochefort. In 1694, he also obtained the intendance of the généralité of La Rochelle. His time at Rochefort considerably transformed the port and with Colbert du Terron he was the prime mover in the development of its town and arsenal. His epitaph at the church of Saint-Louis de Rochefort reads Hanc nascentem urbem ligeam invenit / Lapideam reliquit. He is thus best known as a builder and it can be said that he was to Rochefort what Girardin de Vauvré was to Toulon.
Family
Michel V was first cousin to Marie Charron, wife of Colbert, daughter of Jacques Charron and Marie Bégon. He married Marie-Madeleine Druilhon on 16 February 1665 at Blois - she was the daughter of Pierre, maître in the Chambre des comptes of Blois. Madeleine had been born in Blois, baptised in the parish of Sainte-Solenne on 29 March 1645 and died in the same town on 25 December 1697. The marriage alliances by Michel and Madeleine's children were advantageous for the family's descendants:
