Antoine Crozat
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Antoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel (ca.1655 — June 7, 1738), French founder of an immense fortune, was the first private proprietary owner of French Louisiana from 1712 to 1717.
Born in Toulouse, France the son of peasants, he and his brother Pierre, opportunist self-made men of the past, rose from obscurity to become ones of the wealthiest merchants of France. By lending money to the government he was ennobled as the marquis du Châtel, noble title that he transmitted to his elder son Louis-François and became a financial counsellor to Louis XIV. He invested in the Guinea Company and the Asiento Company, two lucrative overseas franchises. The king eventually offered him a 15‑year trade monopoly in the new colony of Louisiana. On arrival there he entrusted Cadillac with prospecting for the precious metals that persistent rumors attributed to the territory; after the enterprise proved fruitless, he surrendered his monopoly, returned to France in 1738, and died in Paris.
He married Marguerite Legendre. They had four children:
- Marie-Anne married the comte d'Évreux
- Louis-François, marquis du Châtel
- Joseph-Antoine, marquis de Thugny
- Louis-Antoine, baron de Thiers, whose gallery of paintings inherited from his uncle Pierre Crozat, ("Crozat le Pauvre"), was purchased after his death for the Hermitage Museum, through Denis Diderot.
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