Pierre Abraham Lorillard

Pierre Abraham Lorillard (1742 – 1776) was a tobacconist of New York City. He founded the business which developed into the Lorillard Tobacco Company, which claims to be the oldest tobacco firm in the United States and in the world. His name is also sometimes given as Peter Abraham Lorillard,Peter Lorillard and Pierre Lorillard I.

Pierre Abraham Lorillard was born in 1742, the son of Jean Lorillard (b. 1707) and Anne Catherine Rossel. He had five brothers, Jean George, George David, Charles Christophe, Jean Abraham, and Leopold Frederick, and a sister, Anne Marguerite.

The naturalization recorded in New York on April 21, 1762, of 'Peter Louillard', a weaver and French Protestant, is probably that of Lorillard. This followed the naturalization on October 27, 1760, of John George Lorillard, described as a French Protestant yeoman of New York City.

Lorillard set out in business in about 1760 with a snuff-grinding factory in a rented house on Chatham Street, now Park Row, in Lower Manhattan. He was the first man to make snuff in North America. According to Maxwell Fox's The Lorillard Story (1947), Lorillard adopted the trademark of a native American smoking a pipe, standing beside a hogshead of tobacco, which "later became the best known trademark in the world".

Lorillard's sons George and Peter (or Pierre) took over his business in 1792, while his son Jacob became a banker and philanthropist in New York City. According to Rex Burns, "Jacob Lorillard was justified in his wealth, first because he rose from being an obscure tobacconist's apprentice by his own integrity, industry, perseverance, and love of books, and secondly, because when he was a millionaire, his moral pursuit of wealth led him to exhibit benevolence and generosity."

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