Samuel Blommaert (Bloemaert, Blommaerts, Blommaart, Blomert, etc.; 11 or 21 August 1583 – 23 December 1651) was a Flemish-Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) from 1622 to 1629 and again from 1636 to 1642. In the latter period, he was a paid commissioner of Sweden in the Netherlands and he played a dubious but key role in Peter Minuit's expedition that led to the Swedish colonisation of New Sweden (present-day United States). 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 Antwerp, Duchy of Brabant, in current-day Belgium 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 of Antwerp and in 1583 captain at Fort Lillo on the eastern border of the Scheldt; he knew the area very well as his ancestors came from Bergen-op-Zoom. 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. In 1587 he remarried Janneken van Hove but he died four years later. Samuel was apprenticed in Stade with his aunt Susanne, and in Vienna at his uncle Daniel. In 1601 he became "poorter" of Amsterdam. In 1602 he visited Benin.His account, given to Isaac Vossius was used by Olfert Dapper in 1668.
In 1603, Samuel enlisted with the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and travelled to the Dutch East Indies on a ship under admiral Steven van der Hagen. In the years 1605–1607 he stayed on Borneo. He was sent by the board (Jacques l'Hermite) to Sukadana West Kalimantan 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.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, pp. 16–17. In: Bijdragen & Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap, nr. 29. 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.Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna, 1635-1641. 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.De Nederlandsche Leeuw
Early career
For many years Blommaert was involved in a company which traded in copper from Angola and the African coast, together with Frans Jacobsz. Hinlopen, and Lucas van der Venne.Klein, P.W. (1963) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 146.Gelderblom, O. (2000) Zuid-Nederlandse kooplieden en de opkomst van de Amsterdamse stapelmarkt, pp. 224, 231. In 1615 Jacob le Maire carried a letter from his father Isaac le Maire 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 VOC on 30 January 1616 Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, pp. 16–17 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." The plan, therefore, was, from the west coast of Africa to sail southward to Tierra del Fuego, and then
Around 1619, he bought a lot of on the Keizersgracht, where a new house was built, and he settled next to Laurens Reael. In 1620, Isaac Coymans, a broker, became his brother-in-law.
New Netherland
By 1621, he invested in the Amsterdam chamber of the WIC and was appointed director in October 1622.The Flemish Influence on Nieuw Nederland In 1623, he and Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Samuel Godijn, and Albert Coenraetsz. Burgh were investigating the possibility of the slave trade in Angola.K. Ratelband (2006) De Westafrikaanse reis van Piet Heyn 1624-1625, p. LV. In 1624 his grandfather Jacob Hoefnagel became one of the three mayors in Gothenburg 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.Klein, P.W. (1963) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 279.
In 1628 he collaborated with Van Rensselaer, Godijn, and Burgh, to sent two persons to New Netherland (present-day United States) to inspect the land. 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. This was in 1629, three years before the charter of Maryland, and is the oldest deed for land in the state of Delaware. The purchase was ratified in 1630 by Peter Minuit and his council at Fort Amsterdam.
A company was formed to colonise the tract that included Blommaert, Godin, Van Rensselaer, Joannes de Laet (a geographer), and David Pietersz. 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, and the colony at Lewes 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 palisaded 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 5 May 1630, by the purchase of a tract twelve miles square on the coast of Cape May opposite, and the transaction was duly attested at Fort Amsterdam.
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.Isaack de Rasieres to Samuel Blommaert 1628 (Caleb Johnson. MayflowerHistory.com)
New Sweden
Because of the ongoing Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629), no grain could be exported through the city of Dantzig.J.G. van Dillen (1970) Van Rijkdom en Regenten, p. 65. 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 Arkhangelsk. 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.
In 1635, he started a brass factory in Nacka, 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 and Stolberg.J. Römelingh (1986) Een rondgang langs de Zweedse archieven, pp. 158, 247, 267 In 1636, Blommaert was reappointed as "bewindhebber" of the WIC after its first bankruptcy, but also became the consul for Sweden in Amsterdam.Klein, P.W. (1963) De Trippen in de 17e eeuw, p. 374. In 1636 the directors of the WIC could not gather because of an outbreak of plague.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, p. 174 In 1637 Blommaert secretly invested money in the first Swedish expedition with Fogel Grip and Kalmar Nyckel to New Sweden. 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 Peter Minuit to command the expedition, without the knowledge or permission of the WIC. Blommaert suggested to Oxenstierna to take part in the WIC, and organise 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 Cádiz or Seville, to make his expeditions and colonisation more profitable.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, pp. 93, 136–137, 143, 149, 155.
In November 1637 two ships belonging to the Swedish South Company with crew and settlers left Gothenburg.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, p. 175. Because of a storm the ships could get around Scotland; after a month at sea one arrived at Texel, the other at Medemblik.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, pp. 50, 56, 145, 146, 182. 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 or Minqua Indians. What happened next is not very clear. (It seems he was hardly involved in building Fort Christina). 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 for tobacco.Kernkamp, G.W. (1908) Brieven van Samuel Blommaert aan den Zweedschen Rijkskanselier Axel Oxenstierna 1635–1641, p. 158Ashmead, Henry Graham History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Chapter II, Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co. 1884)Weslager, C. A. A Man and his Ship: Peter Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel (Wilmington, Delaware: Kalmar Nickel Foundation. 1989 (Meanwhile Cornelis Jol attempted to capture the Spanish treasure fleet near Cuba with four ships but didn't succeed to the disappointment of Blommaert.) On 5 August 1638 Minuit drowned during a hurricane at St. Christopher (today's St. Kitts). About 20 ships drifted out of the harbour. One ship sank near the Azores, the Kalmar arrived without a mast. A second voyage, which departed on 7 February 1640, and arrived at Fort Christina on 17 April, brought additional settlers for New Sweden. As the two expeditions turned out to be unprofitable for Blommaert, he withdrew in 1641.