Financier Philip Burlamachi was born in Sedan of Italian stock. Before settling in London around 1605, he had been active in the Netherlands. He became an English denisen in 1614, and was naturalised by statute in 1624. His marriage to Elizabeth Calandrini cemented important business ties with her family, especially with her brother Philip Calandrini who frequently acted as his agent in Amsterdam in a variety of enterprises, including the pawning of jewels for Charles I in 1625.
By 1618 he had acquired a house in St Benet Gracechurch in the City. Burlamachi’s presence corresponds with a period of active English involvement in Continental affairs. Both the scale of his operations and the degree of his specialisation in financial business made him a unique figure in early Stuart England. Burlamachi acted as a sort of unofficial paymaster, notably of English and English-financed expeditions abroad. His fortune did not last and in 1633 he was declared bankrupt. He died in penury in 1644.
