He was the son of Voyevoda of Kalisz Antoni Sułkowski (1735–1796) and Karolina Bubna-Littitz, from a Germanized Czech family. His father was an associate of the Russian general and ambassador, Nicholas Repnin, who was sent to Poland by Catherine the Great. During the Sejm of the First Partition, the elder Sułkowski actively supported Russian, Prussian and Austrian partition of Poland and for his service was awarded Order of St. Andrew by Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. Unlike his parents, however, the younger Sułkowski became a Polish patriot, supposedly after witnessing the Warsaw Uprising of 1794 against Russian rule as an eight-year-old.