Balthazar P. Melick (also known as Baltus) (October 26, 1770 – November 20, 1835), an American merchant and banker, was the founder of Chemical Bank in 1823.

[1] Melick who was born in Lebanon Township, New Jersey in 1770, started as an apprentice at a mercantile house at the age of thirteen.

[2] In 1792, at the age of twenty-one he was admitted to a partnership and for many years he was a prosperous merchant in Greenwich Village in New York City.

[4] Melick was also a noted member and secretary of the Black Friars Society, also known as the Friary, a music and social club.

[1] Melick and his partners used the manufacturing company, which produced chemicals such as blue vitriol, alum, nitric acid, camphor and saltpeter, as well as medicines, paints, and dyes as a means to securing a bank charter from the New York State legislature.