Theophilus Cazenove
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Theophilus Cazenove, or Theophile Cazenove (13 October 1740 - 6 March 1811), was a financier and one of the agents of the Holland Land Company. He was born in Amsterdam, Holland and died in Paris, France. His early career was spent in commercial transactions in Holland and France. Even though he was bankrupt by 1788, he was retained by Pieter Stadnitski to travel to the United States to act as an investment agent for Stadnitski and other Dutch investors. He invested his clients money at first in development bonds issued by the new states. His next venture was to invest in large tracts of undeveloped land, which included the Holland Purchase.
Cazenove lived well as a financier and was known for his generosity. His business dealings were not particularly successful and the investors barely made any profit, even losing money in the Pennsylvania land dealings. He was also hard pressed to account for funds that were under his control. In 1799 he returned to Europe even though he had become an American citizen. He eventually left the employment of the Dutch investors and sought a position under Talleyrand in France.
A number of places are named after him, including the Village of Cazenovia and Cazenovia Creek in central New York.