Simon De Passe (c. 1595 – 6 May 1647) was the son of prominent Dutch engraver and publisher Crispijn Van De Passe the Elder. His father was the founder of a distinguished publishing house in Cologne that produced portraits of European nobility and religious and other prints. The family were forced to leave Cologne because of their Anabaptist faith. They moved to Utrecht, and in 1616 Simon settled in London where he established for himself a successful portrait engraving practice. He contributed portraits to Henry Holland’s Baziliologia (1618) and made a number of portraits of the royal family, noblemen and scholars. In 1624, he moved to Copenhagen as royal engraver to the king of Denmark, a post he held for the rest of his life.

Willem de Passe (ca. 1598 – ca. 1637), the least productive of the siblings, took over from his brother in England, probably after working in France, and died in London. He joined the Huguenot church in Threadneedle Street in 1624, and his wife Elizabeth may have been the daughter of the English publisher Thomas Jenner.