 André Laffon de Ladebat was born in Bordeaux, France, the son of commercial ship-owner Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat.He studied in the Netherlands at the Protestant University of Franeker.In 1763, returning to France after a stay in England, de Ladebat entered his father's naval armaments business, and invested heavily in the development of an "Experimental Farm" in Pessac, and began to deforest the moors of Bordeaux.