Cornelius Lampsins was born in 1600 to a very wealthy Dutch merchant family, and he was involved in the early colonization of the Caribbean, in the 1630s.

He owned a fleet of over three hundred trading vessels, and helped found the colonies of Martinique and Saint Thomas.

There was much dispute between the Couronian and Dutch colonists, and when Courland surrendered to Sweden in 1659, the Lampsins brothers took control of the colony.

[1] In 1662, the brothers were elevated to Barons by the French King Louis XIV, and the Lampsins family reigned until the English invaded the island in 1666.

[2][3] Cornelius Lampsins had two sons, Jan and Geleyn who participated in running the settlement on Tobago with their uncle.