Biography of 	French, Capt. A. B. Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller August 2001

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Capt. A. B. French, the head of the well-known firm of A. B. French & Co.,
Equitable building, New Orleans, La., is a native of Liverpool.  The ancestors
of Mr. French have been for generations among the wealthiest and most
influential people of the province of Connaught, Ireland, Great Britain.  They
belonged essentially to the nobility and for years several members of the family
were sent to parliament.  The father of Mr. A. B. French, Henry J. French, Esq.,
was born at Broadfield House, County Mayo, Ireland, the country residence of A.
B. French's grandfather.  He received a classical education in the college of
Maynooth, and although a stanch Roman Catholic he held positions of trust in Her
Majesty's customs service most of his life.  The demands of his position
necessitated his location in England, and after a career of honorable service he
died in Liverpool, England, at the age of seventy-nine years.  The maiden name
of our subject's mother was Mary Thornton McCarter, of Burncrauch, near
Londonderry.  TheMcCarters were ultra-Orangemen, but Mrs. French became a
convert to the Catholic church after marriage.  She died in Hartlepool, England,
in 1864.  To the marriage of Henry French and Mary Thornton McCarter there were
born four children--three sons and a daughter:  Capt. Andrew F. J. French,
nautical assessor of Liverpool, England, who married Miss Elizabeth Hargraves of
Durham Hall near Liverpool;  Henry W., now in Quebec, Canada, who married Miss
Titue, a niece of L'atillia, late lieutenant governor of Quebec;  our subject,
A. B. French;  Mary Louise French, who became the wife of M. Stafford, of
Liverpool, an official in the postal service of that city, in which she herself
was employed prior to her marriage.  A. B. French was educated in Eycmonth, and
also at Berwick-on-Tweed, on the borders of Scotland and Hartlepool, during his
father's stay in England. He entered the ship-brokerage business as an
apprentice with a Netherland firm in Hartlepool, England, and finished with a
Danish firm by the name of C. Nielsen.  He subsequently entered the employment
of a ship-building and steamship firm, and afterward went to the west coast of
Africa as supercargo and trading master, later taking charge of the bulks on the
Camaroons river.  Returning to Liverpool, he opened a business in that city on
his own account, and his operations were extensive in ship brokerage,
speculations and buying and selling ships.  The panic of 1867 unsettled business
affairs, and retiring he came to America, and after two years of travel in
Canada and the United States located in New Orleans, and in 1869 established the
ship-brokerage firm of A. B. French & Co., his partner being his brother, H. W.
French, of Quebec, Canada.  H. W. French was formerly connected with E.
Chaloner, timber broker of Liverpool; Wade & Co., of Hull; and afterward with
Messrs. Ross & Co., Quebec, Canada.  The business experience of the French
brothers gave them at once the confidence of the public, and the firm has become
one of the best known in America, both at home and abroad.  As cotton and grain
exporters, steamship agents, exporters of lumber, staves, etc., and importers of
cork, wood and wines, the concern has done an extensive and lucrative business
from its organization.  As exporters of staves to England and Ireland, Spain and
the north, its operations are large, and it is the only firm in New Orleans that
does a business direct with Portugal, since l872.  The firm ships large cargoes
of staves, lumber and flour to that country every year.  Mr. A. B. French gives
the minutest details of this business his strict personal supervision, making
visits to Europe and elsewhere when his affairs demand it.  Mr. A. B. French was
married first in New York to Miss Shannon, of Brooklyn, N. Y.  There are three
children living by this marriage:  Henry,  Alexandria and  John F.  After the
death of his first wife he married a Miss Mary Magdalene Claiborne, a daughter
of Colonel Claiborne, son of General Claiborne, who was a brother of Governor
Claiborne, first governor of Louisiana.  By this marriage there is issue one son
and daughter:  Mary Magdalene;  the son, T. P. L. French, died in 1886.  Mr.
French and family are stanch Catholics.  Captain French is of magnificent
personal physique, having a commanding presence, and is always to be found the
ideal gentleman and the possessor of entertaining conversational powers.  A
well-read gentleman, and having traveled extensively, his views are always to be
found broad ganged and highly interesting.  He saw service in the volunteers in
England, and being a lover of military tactics, he is distinguished among his
acquaintances for his skill and as a drill master.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 1), pp. 424-425. 
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.