He was the eldest son of Prince Louis Frederick I of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and his wife Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

He had three brothers, along with nine sisters, but in 1713 primogeniture was introduced in the principalities of Schwarzburg, and therefore he became the sole ruling Prince of Rudolstadt in 1718.

When many Protestants arrived in Prussia, Frederick William wrote to the princes of neighbouring principalities, asking them to house and feed some of the refugees.

One gets a better idea of the scale of this influx if one realises that the refugees arrived in groups of 1000 at a time when Rudolstadt had only around 540 inhabitants.

On 8 February 1720 in Saalfeld, Frederick Anton married Princess Sophia Wilhelmina of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1690–1727).

They had three children: On 6 January 1729, Frederick Anton remarried to Princess Sophia Christina (1688–1750), a daughter of Prince Christian Eberhard of East Frisia.