Dutch merchant in Lisbon.

Provided assistance to the crews of the Heart of Oak, a shallop from North Carolina that was wrecked on the Portuguese coast, and the schooner Sally, brought as a prize into Lisbon. In return for his services, he was made Congress’ unsalaried agent in Portugal (June, 1780). The appointment, in a country that was Britain’s traditional ally, ruined him as a merchant.

Congress later reimbursed him with an annual grant from the beginning of his services to 1787, and with a township of his choosing in the Northwest Territory.