Jan Pietersz Graeff
Jan Pietersz Graeff (Amsterdam, 1512 - there, 1553) was an Amsterdam regent and cloth merchant from the 16th century. Biography. Jan Pietersz Graeff was the son of Pieter Graeff, the first known representative of the Dutch De Graeff family. Pieter was probably a son of Wolfgang von Graben from the Von Graben family. It is uncertain which one was the first Graeff active in Amsterdam [Pieter or Jan]. Jans mother was Griet Pietersdr Berents descendant from Wouter Berensz and his wife Dieuwer Willemsz de Grebber, called Berents, of the De Grebber family, baljuws of the Waterland, and Willem  Eggert, stadtholder of Holland. Jan Pietersz Graeff married to Stein Braseman and had five sons who survived their childhood: Graeff lived in a house on Damrak, called Huis De Keyser, which was owned by his descendants for centuries. His sons Lenaert, Dirk and Jacob ran a hardware store in the house called De Keyzershoed (Huis de Keyser) in the[Niezel (a street), where the Imperial Crown later hung. There he ran a cloth trade, and in 1539 he was chief of the Guild of the Amsterdam cloth merchants. Graeff also traded in Antwerp, the former warehouse of English cloth. When he  wanted to establish himself as a trader in North Brabant, his sons intervened to return him to Amsterdam soon. In 1542 he became a councilor and in 1543 he was appointed alderman (Schepen) of Amsterdam. Due to its political activities, the De Graeff family is one of the few patrician families to sit in government before and after the Amsterdam Alteratie of 1578. Joost van den Vondel called Graeff in his verse "Aen den hooghedelen heer Pieter de Graef, vryheer van Zuitpolsbroek, op den oorsprongk van het geslagt der graven" "den braven" ("the good one"). Vondel also commemorated him in  his "Mengeldicht".