Samuel Blommaert (''Bloemaert'', ''Blommaerts'', ''Blommaart'', ''Blomert'', etc.) (11 or 21 August 1583, in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

– 23 December 1651, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

from 1622 to 1629 and again from 1636 to 1642. In the latter period, he was a paid commissioner of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the Netherlands and he played a dubious but key role in

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (French language, French: ''Pierre Minuit'', Dutch language, Dutch: ''Peter Minnewit''; 1580 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloons, Walloon merchant and politician who was the 3rd Director of New Netherland, Director of the Dutch Nort ...

's expedition that led to the Swedish colonizing of

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

. For years Blommaert was involved in the copper trade and industry. In 1645 he was appointed for a third time as a manager of the WIC, being one of the main investors from the beginning.

Early life

Blommaert was born in

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant, a Imperial State, state of the Holy Roman Empire, was established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant of 1085–1183, and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. The Duchy comprised part of the Bu ...

, in current-day

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

but grew up in London. He was the son of Margaretha Hoefnagel (-1585) and the wealthy goldsmith/merchant Lodewijk Blommaert (1537–1591), who in 1581 was

schepen A schepen (Dutch, ; . ') or échevin (French, , ) or Schöffe (German, ) is a municipal officer in Belgium and formerly the Netherlands, where it has been replaced by the (a municipal executive). In modern Belgium, the ''schepen'' or ''échevin'' ...

of Antwerp and in 1583 captain at Fort Lillo on the eastern border of the

Scheldt The Scheldt ( ; ; ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to Old Englis ...

; he knew the area very well as his ancestors came from

Bergen-op-Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the Brabantian dialect, local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the Province ...

. His mother died when Samuel was young and his father moved the family to London when Antwerp was occupied in 1585 by the

Duke of Parma The Duke of Parma and Piacenza () was the ruler of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, a List of historic states of Italy, historical state of Northern Italy. It was created by Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese) for his son Pier Luigi Farnese, Du ...

. In 1587 he remarried Janneken van Hove but he died four years later. Samuel was apprenticed in

Stade Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...

with his aunt Susanne, and in Vienna at his uncle Daniel. In 1601 he became " poorter" of Amsterdam. In 1602 he visited

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

. In 1603, Samuel enlisted with the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

and traveled to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

on a ship under admiral Steven van der Hagen. In the years 1605–1607 he stayed on

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. He was sent by the board ( Jacques l'Hermite) to Sukadana

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan () is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital and largest city is Pontianak. It is bordered by East Kalimantan and Central ...

to free merchant Hans Roeff, who had died or left when Blommaert arrived. He returned to Bantam with 633 diamonds he was able to save at the trading post. In 1609/1610 he again stayed on Sambas, Borneo and was able to get a monopoly on diamond trade for the VOC. In September 1610, after seven years, he left sooner than expected and arrived in June 1611 at Texel. Pieter Both had to investigate the case. On 5 June 1612, he married the 22-years-old Catharina Reynst, a daughter of Gerard Reynst, governor of the East Indies. Both were living at Sint Antoniesbreestraat with whom he would have twelve children between 1613 and 1633; two died in an early age.

Early career

For many years Blommaert was involved in a company which traded in copper from

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and the African coast, together with Frans Jacobsz. Hinlopen, and Lucas van der Venne. In 1615 Jacob le Maire carried a letter from his father

Isaac le Maire Isaac Le Maire (c. 1558 in Antwerp – September 20, 1624 in Egmond aan den Hoef) was a Dutch entrepreneur, investor, and a sizeable shareholder of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He is best known for his constant strife with the VOC, ...

to be presented to Governor Reynst, with an offer to smuggle goods to his son-in-law in Amsterdam. Blommaert was investigated in Amsterdam by the board of the East-India Company on January 30, 1616 about a vessel, named ''Mauritius de Nassau'', sailed from a Dutch port, under the command of Jan Remmertszoon from Purmerend. The ship was ostensibly destined for Angola, but from there she was ordered to direct her course for "

Terra Australis (Latin for ) was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that continental l ...

." The plan, therefore, was, from the west coast of Africa to sail southward to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

, and then Around 1619 he settled on

Keizersgracht The Keizersgracht (; "Emperor's canal") is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is the second of the three main Amsterdam canals that together form the Grachtengordel, or canal belt, and lies between the inner Herengracht and outer Prinseng ...

and bought a lot (30x170 ft) where a new house was built, next to Laurens Reael. In 1620 Isaac Coymans, a broker, became his brother-in-law.

New Netherlands

By 1621, he invested in the Amsterdam chamber of the

and was appointed director in October 1622. In 1623 he and Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn en Albert Coenraetsz. Burgh were investigating the possibility of the slave trade in Angola. In 1624 his grandfather Jacob Hoefnagel became one of the three mayors in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

and president of the court of justice for a while. Louis de Geer received the official monopoly on the copper and iron trade in Sweden and decided to settle there. In 1627 Blommaert had an argument with Pieter Trip about 34 Swedish guns. In 1628 he collaborated with Van Rensselaer, Godijn and Burgh. Godyn, Van Rensselaer and Samuel Blommaert sent two persons to New Netherland to inspect the country. Gilles Housset and Jacob Jansz Cuyper bargained with the natives for a tract of land reaching from Cape Henlopen to the mouth of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

. This was in 1629, three years before the charter of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, and is the oldest deed for land in the state of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. The purchase was ratified in 1630 by

and his council at

Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam, (later, Fort George among other names) was a fortification on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson River, Hudson and East River, East rivers in what is now New York City. The fort and the island ...

. A company was formed to colonize the tract that included Blommaert, Godin, Van Rensselaer, Joannes de Laet (a geographer), and David Pietersen de Vries. A ship of eighteen guns was fitted out to bring over the colonists and subsequently defend the coast, with incidental whale-fishing to help defray expenses. A colony of more than thirty souls was planted on Lewes creek, a little north of Cape Henlopen, and its governorship was entrusted to Gilles Housset. This settlement antedated by several years any in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and the colony at

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

practically laid the foundation and defined the singularly limited area of the state of Delaware, the major part of which was included in the purchase. A

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

d fort was built, with the "red lion, rampant," of Holland affixed to its gate, and the country was named "Swaanendael" or Zwaanendael Colony, while the water was called Godyn's Bay. The estate was further extended, on May 5, 1630, by the purchase of a tract twelve miles square on the coast of

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Th ...

opposite, and the transaction was duly attested at

. The existence of the little colony was short, for the Indians came down upon it in revenge for an arbitrary act on the part of Housset, and it was destroyed, not a soul escaping to tell the tale. According to acknowledged precedent, occupancy of the wilderness served to perfect title; but before the Dutch could reoccupy the desolated site at Lewes, the English were practically in possession. Because of the ongoing Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629), no grain could be exported through the city of Dantzig. In 1630 the price of grain remained extremely high due to increasing competition. Albert Burgh tried to ensure a monopoly for the City of Amsterdam in Moscovy. In 1631 Blommaert bought rye in

Archangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river and numerous islands o ...

. Isaac Coymans, his brother-in-law, moved all his furniture to Keizersgracht 139 as Coymans was in trouble for embezzlement. In 1631 De Geer had a disagreement with his partner Elias Trip. The quarrel was resolved in 1634?

New Sweden

In 1635, he started a brass factory in

Nacka Nacka () is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to a 16th-century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mi ...

, outside Stockholm, to boost the export of copper which could be used for making guns and coins. Blommaert tried to attract workers and experts from

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

and Stolberg. In 1636, Blommaert was reappointed as "bewindhebber" of the WIC after its first

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

, but also became the

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

for Sweden in Amsterdam. In 1636 the directors of the WIC could not gather because of an outbreak of plague. In 1637 Blommaert secretly invested money in the first Swedish expedition with '' Fogel Grip'' and '' Kalmar Nyckel'' to

. By doing so, he hoped to avoid paying the Dano-Norwegian Sound Tolls on all foreign merchantmen crossing the Sound. He engaged the former diamond cutter

to command the expedition, without the knowledge or permission of the WIC. Blommaert suggested to Oxenstierna to take part in the WIC, and organize from Gothenburg and trade on Spanish and Portuguese ports. Blommaert was interested in seizing Spanish ships, which sailed from the East or West-Indies to Cadiz or Seville, to make his expeditions and colonization more profitable. In November 1637 two ships belonging to the Swedish South Company with crew and settlers left Gothenburg. Because of a storm the ships could get around Scotland; after a month at sea one arrived at Texel the other at Medemblik. The damage was provisionally repaired; sails and victuals (butter, bread, and beer) needed to be bought. Having arrived on Swedes' Landing on 29 March Minuit acted as he had done before, he did not conquer the land by force but bought it legally from the

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

or Minqua Indians. What happened next is not very clear. (It seems he was hardly involved in building

Fort Christina Fort Christina, also called Fort Altena, was the first Sweden, Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Christina, Queen of Sweden, it was located approximately 1&nb ...

). Minuit left the colony mid-June, 1638 and sailed to the Caribbean island of St. Christopher where he arrived in early July to barter salt, a ship's cargo of wine and

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

for tobacco. (Meanwhile Cornelis Jol attempted to capture the

Spanish treasure fleet The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet (, also called silver fleet or plate fleet; from the meaning "silver"), was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790, which linked Spain with its Spanish Empi ...

near Cuba with four ships but didn't succeed to the disappointment of Blommaert.) On 5 August 1638 Minuit drowned during a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

at St. Christopher (today's St. Kitts). About 20 ships drifted out of the harbour. One ship sank near the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

, the ''Kalmar'' arrived without a mast. A second voyage, which departed on February7, 1640, and arrived at Fort Christina on April17, brought additional settlers for New Sweden. As the two expeditions turned out to be unprofitable for Blommaert, he withdrew in 1641. In 1639 Blommaert and Isaac Coymans sold tobacco and sugar; they were accused of cheating as there were a couple of stones in one of the cases and problems with the tobacco. In 1640

Portuguese Restoration War The Restoration War (), historically known as the Acclamation War (''Guerra da Aclamação''), was the war between Portugal and Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a forma ...

improved the situation for the Dutch. Blommaert was involved in mining in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

. In 1641 the Zwaanendael Colony was sold to Sweden; all the participants agreed on an equal share. A ship with 211 slaves arrived in Brazil. In 1642 with collaborated with Jan Valkenburgh in Angola. In 1647 he and his wife were portrayed. He told professor Nicolaes Tulp, stories on bestiality he heard on Borneo. In 1651 Blommaert got ill and was buried in

Westerkerk The Westerkerk (; ) is a Calvinism, Reformed church within Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Dutch Protestant Calvinism in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the most western part of the Grachtengordel (Amsterdam), Grachtengordel nei ...

. In 1655 his daughter Constantia (1626-) married the admiral Isaac Sweers, Catharina married Abraham Elzevir and Anna moved to Malakka with her husband, director of the VOC.

Legacy

Blommaert's thirty-eight letters to

Axel Oxenstierna Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna (; 1583–1654) was a Swedish statesman and Count of Södermöre. He became a member of the Swedish Privy Council in 1609 and served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden from 1612 until his death. He was a confidant of ...

from 1635 to 1641 are of great importance to the history of New Sweden. They mention Willem Usselincx one of the founders of the WIC, who had moved to Gothenburg in 1624 and founded the Swedish South Company; :sv:Peter Spiring dealt with the Dutch merchants. These letters were published in ''Repertorium Veterrimarum Societatum Litterariarum'' 1870–1879 of the

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

Historical Society and in ''Bijdragen en Mededeelingen'' (1908).Journal-Title Abbreviations in Old Journals in the Repertorium Veterrimarum Societatum Litterariarum 1870–187

/ref>

Notes

References

Primary Source

* J. Franklin Jameson, Jameson, J.F. editor. ''Narrative of New Netherland 1609–1664'' (Project Gutenberg – from the series: Original narratives of early American history. Original Printing 1909
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blommaert, Samuel 1583 births 1654 deaths Administrators of the Dutch West India Company Sailors on ships of the Dutch East India Company Businesspeople from Antwerp Businesspeople from Amsterdam People from New Netherland People of New Sweden Dutch people of Flemish descent Dutch explorers of North America Dutch merchants 17th-century Dutch businesspeople