James Collett

James Collett was an English-born merchant who settled in Norway and became the largest timber trader in Christiania.

He was born in London on 16 August 1655. He worked in London as a timber importer from Norway. In 1683, he visited his business associate Peder Nielsen Leuck in Christiania. In 1686, he married Peder’s daughter Karen Leuch. In Christiania he worked as a factor for English merchants involved in the lumber trade, but also ran trading on England for his own account. In 1703, he took citizenship in Christiania and by the early 1700s was one of the richest men in the city. By the time of his death on 29 May 1727, he was probably the richest man in Christiania.