We know very little about Vermeer`s life. There is a tradition that he was baptised in Delft on 31 October 1632, the second child and only son of Reynier Jansz. His father was born in 1591 in Antwerp. In 1611 he moved to Amsterdam where he specialised in the silk trade. He married Digna Baltens in 1615 and settled a short time later in Delft; at that time he bore the name "Vos", and from 1625 to 1629 he leased an inn, the sign of which was a fox, an allusion to his name. He continued to maintain his connections with the silk trade, although he gave art dealing as his main occupation upon being admitted to the Delft Guild of St. Luke in October 1631. This indicates that he followed a variety of trades simultaneously.
J.M.Montias has discovered that Vermeer`s maternal grandfather, a watchmaker named Balthasar Claesz. Gerrits, was involved in some shady business deals. From 1619 onwards he and his accomplices used bought moulds to forge coins. This developed into an affair of such proportions that even the Public Prosecutor and Prince Maurit`s governor became involved. Two of Gerrits` accomplices were condemned to death and beheaded. Gerrits himself managed to get away, to The Hague, and finally Gorinchem, where he seems to have lived on undisturbed.