Jacob Theodoor Cremer was a tobacco magnate and administrator for the Deli Company in Sumatra. He was from the Netherlands. He also became a politician and was a member of the Lower House. From 1897 – 1901 he was Minister of Colonies. He was President Dutch Trading Company, Amsterdam.
Cremer began working the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch Trading Company in Batavia.
Cremer bought the Duin and Kruidberg estate in Santpoort and lived in the "House of Columns" in Amsterdam during the winter. He co-initiated of the Coolie Ordinance.
He founded the Netherlands Shipbuilding Company, and co-founded the Bouwonderneming Jordan NV, Royal Packet-Society, Dutch Shipbuilding Company and in 1910 the Society Colonial Institute with Dr. Henri François Rudolf Hubrecht. He authored the first Dutch-Indonesian Mining Law. From 1907 to 1913 he was president of the Nederlandsche Handel-Company. He cofounded the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam in 1910.
In 1912 he sold his house on the Herengracht to Cornelis Johannes Karel van Aalst, and lived permanently in Santpoort. In 1920 he became a member of the Dutch Senate. After the First World War, he became Dutch ambassador to Washington until 1920.