Peter Minuit

Peter Minuit, Minnetonka
3rd Director of New Netherland
In office 1626–1631
Preceded by	Willem Verhulst
Succeeded by	Sebastiaen Jansen Krol
Personal details
Born	1580 Wesel, Duchy of Cleves, Holy Roman Empire (modern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
Died	1638 (aged 58) St. Christopher
Religion	Calvinist

Peter Minuit, Pieter Minuit, Pierre Minuit or Peter Minnewit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloon from Wesel, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, then part of the Duchy of Cleves. His surname means "midnight". He was Director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden in 1638.

Minuit is generally credited with orchestrating the purchase of Manhattan Island for the Dutch from the Native Americans called the Lenape, which later became the city of New Amsterdam, modern-day New York City, which was the core of the Dutch colony of New Netherland and the later British colony of New York. He also founded the Delaware colony in the early 1600's.

Peter Minuit was born sometime between 1580 and 1585, into a Protestant family that had moved from the city of Tournai in the Southern Netherlands (presently part of Wallonia, Belgium), to Wesel in Germany, in order to avoid Spanish Catholic colonials, who were not favorably disposed towards Protestants.

His father, Johan, died in 1609 and Peter took over management of the household and his father's business. Peter Minuit had a good reputation in Wesel, attested by the fact that he was several times appointed a guardian. He also assisted the poor during the Spanish occupation of 1614–1619.

Peter Minuit married Gertrude Raedts on August 20, 1613. From a wealthy family, Gertrude probably helped Peter Minuit in establishing himself as a broker. What products he dealt in is not known. That it involved diamonds is derived from a legal document, a will, drawn up in 1615, in the Dutch City of Utrecht mentioning Peter Minnewit as a diamond cutter.

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