In 1595 he was involved in serious legal case with
Isaac le Maire and Dirck van Os on behalf of his "father-in-law". In 1597 he seems to have lived in
Middelburg. In 1600 he sent a letter to
Clusius. On 24 August 1602, Samuel Godijn married Anneken Anselmo in Bremen, born in Antwerp on 8 July 1583. Together with his brother Daniel Godijn, he invested 3,000 guilders in the first subscription for
VOC shares in August 1602. Godin traded in wool,
indigo from Spain,
brazilwood, but around 1619 he became more interested in whaling. Because of the recent troubles with English whalers around
Spitsbergen the plan came up to catch whales in the Atlantic, near the
North River (today's Hudson). About ten men invested two ships, Godin was one of them. August 1622 he bought a plot on
Keizersgracht and settled within a year in a house called
De Bruinvis (The
Harbour porpoise) or
De Walvis (The Whale), either on number 105 or 107. Because of competition among fellow Dutch fur-traders it seems Samuel Godin and
Killian van Rensselaer decided to look around elsewhere. In 1628
Samuel Blommaert was informed about suitable land near Godyn's Bay. In the late 1620s, when a controversy arose within the
Dutch West India Company as to whether the emphasis of the company's activities should be placed on the expansion of trade or the acquisition of further colonies, Samuel Godijn was one of four merchants who opted for further colonisation. The others were Blommaert,
Albert C. Burgh, and Van Rensselaer. On their behalf the agents bargained with the natives for a tract of land reaching from
Cape Henlopen to the mouth of
Delaware River, "32 miles long, two miles deep extending from Old Cape Henlopen northward to the mouth of a river." The estate had been further extended, on May 5, 1630, by the purchase of a tract twelve miles square on the coast of
Cape May opposite, and the transaction was duly attested at
Fort Amsterdam. The patent for this land was probably registered and confirmed on June 1, 1630. Godin and Blommaert started the
Zwaanendael Colony. A ship of eighteen guns was fitted out to bring over the colonists and subsequently defend the coast, with incidental whale-fishing to help defray expenses. In December 1630, their ship
De Walvis (The Whale) set sail from
Texel, with immigrants, food, cattle and whaling implements. A colony of more than thirty souls was planted on Lewes creek, a little north of
Cape Henlopen. A
palisaded fort was built, with the "red lion, rampant," of Holland affixed to its gate, and the country was named Swaanendael or
Zwaanendael Colony. Already in 1628 the water was called Godyn's Bay, now known as
Delaware Bay. Against orders the skipper had delivered tobacco in England and secretly unloaded furs at Texel, which he had kept during the journey in his cabin. ==Family==