Richard Felix Abbay was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, on June 9, 1838.

[1] Abbay was raised in Mississippi, and received his early education in Tennessee.

[1] He was able to return to New Orleans on the last ship to enter the port before the Union blockade, the Habana.

[1] Abbay read law under General James R. Chalmers and was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1867.

[1][2] After four years, he stopped practicing law to focus on his family plantation in Tunica County, Mississippi.