Pieter Cnoll, also known as Pieter Knoll (d. 1672), was a Dutch merchant who was employed by the United East India Company (VOC). Cnoll, who was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, joined the VOC's accounting department at some point before 1647 and was sent to the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

to work as a clerk in Batavia at the city castle. He soon rose to the rank of junior merchant and in 1652 married Cornelia van Nijenroode, an

Indo Indo may refer to: * Indo-, a prefix indicating India or the Indian Subcontinent * Indonesia, a country in Asia ** INDO LINES, callsign of Indonesian Airlines ** Indo people, people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry ** Indo cuisine, fusion ...

businesswoman who was the daughter of Cornelis van Nijenroode, a VOC opperhoofden in Japan. In 1665, artist Jacob Jansz. Coeman painted a portrait of Cnoll's family and enslaved servants. Together, Cnoll and his wife had ten children, with only one surviving to adulthood, a son. Cnoll died in 1672, and left his entire estate in his

last will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

to van Nijenroode. In 1675, she remarried to a Dutchman named Johann Bitter at the age of 46, but the marriage was an unhappy one and she filed for divorce not soon after. She died in 1692 in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

, where she had travelled to in order to secure the divorce from the appropriate authorities. One of the fifty slaves Cnoll owned was an Indonesian man named

Untung Surapati Untung Suropati also Untung Surapati (1660 – December 5, 1706) was an Indonesia war fighter who led a few rebellions against the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Some of his exploits were written in Babad Tanah Jawi. Early life Surapat ...

, who was possibly featured in Coeman's 1665 portrait.

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* * * {{Authority control 1672 deaths 17th-century Dutch businesspeople Businesspeople from Amsterdam Dutch slave owners People of the Dutch East Indies