Thomas Cletcher (1598 – 2 June 1666) was a Dutch jeweller, goldsmith, and gem dealer from The Hague, who was involved in several transactions of jewels of historical significance, and also served as the city's mayor from 1652 to 1657. Family and early life The Cletcher family (sometimes also spelled Cletscher, Clisser, Clitsert, Clitchert, Cletzer, and van Cletcher) originally lived in Colchester, England. The family emigrated to the Low Countries in the mid-16th century, where Thomas Cletcher Sr. registered as a burgher of the city of Antwerp in 1560. As a result of turmoil stemming from the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch and the Habsburg Netherlands, the Cletchers moved north in 1585 and settled in The Hague in the newly founded Dutch Republic. The son of Cletcher Sr. – also named Thomas – became a wine merchant in The Hague and married Tanneken van Bree in 1597; the couple welcomed their firstborn Thomas Cletcher in 1598 (sometimes styled as Thomas Cletcher jr. to distinguish him from his father and grandfather). Thomas grew up in an upper middle class household with at least one brother, the cartographer, painter and printer Daniël Cletcher (c.1599–1632). He lived with his parents until 1625, when he married Anna Ghijsberti, a jeweller's daughter from Antwerp. After Anna's death in 1638, Thomas married Adriana van der Willigen in 1639, the widow of Hendrick van Wouw, the son of the mayor of The Hague. When Adriana died only one year after the wedding, Thomas remarried a third time in 1642; this time the bride was Anna Hoeufft, daughter of a Dordrecht noble and merchant. Marriage into the Hoeufft family increased Thomas's reputation, but he would ultimately outlive even his third wife by two years. Jeweller and goldsmith Thomas Cletcher is known to posteriority mostly through his profession as a jeweller, goldsmith, and gem dealer. In 1626, he designed a piece of jewellery in the shape of a branch of the Polygonatum plant, also known as 'Solomon's Seal'. The piece caught the attention of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, at the time Stadtholder of The Hague, who agreed to buy it for the large sum of 27,000 guilders. As a result of his prowess, Cletcher became Dean of the Guild of Gold- and Silversmiths in 1630 at the age of only 32, a position which he skillfully leveraged to make connections with various European noble houses. Possibly due