Samuel Blommaert (Bloemaert, Blommaerts, Blommaart, Blomert, etc.) (11 or 21 August 1583, in Antwerp – 23 December 1651, in Amsterdam) was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company 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 colonizing of New Sweden. 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 arae 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. In 1603, Samuel enlisted with the Dutch East India Company and traveled 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. 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