They were active in trade in Andalusia, Spain (they were located at Seville and Málaga) for a time during the 17th century, before moving on to Amsterdam, in the United Provinces of the Netherlands during the lifetime of Isaac Rodriguez Monsanto (1645–1695).
Previously, Jews were technically barred from living in French America from 1685 onwards under the terms of the Code Noir, though this was not enforced as strictly during the political flux of the mid-1700s and so the Monsanto family were able to operate.
[2] He developed a strong working relationship with Louis Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlérec, the French Governor, which opened him up to trade with Abraham Gradis, a prominent Jewish merchant in Bordeaux.
[3] These Sephardi merchants, along with David Mendes France, Samuel Israel, Joseph Palacios and Alexander Solomons becoming pioneers in founding the Louisiana Jewish community in the 1760s.
[4] He was also a banker and Superior Court translator; despite a Spanish restrictions on certain forms of trade, Isaac Monsanto funded a British expedition up the Mississippi River to the Illinois territory they had won in the French and Indian War.
[5] The Monsanto sisters settled in Pensacola in British Florida and married in quick succession; Pierre André Tessier de Villauchamps (Eleanora), Thomas Topham (Gracia) and George Urquhart (Angélica).
[4] As a multilingual and cosmopolitan family who could speak French, Spanish and English, the Monsantos were effective operators among the various different European settlers in the area and even after their "official" expulsion from New Orleans still had strong contacts with the local establishment.
[4] Benjamin Monsanto (died 10 October 1794) was appointed by Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana, to teams of citizens who dealt with inventories and appraisals of the slave plantation estates of deceased neighbours.