Augustine Herrman, Beginner of the Virginia Tobacco Trade, Merchant of New Amsterdam and First Lord of Bohemia Manor in Maryland/Chapter 1

by Leon Heck

AUGUSTINE HERRMAN

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION: BIRTH AND ANCESTRY

All we know for certain about the ancestry of Augustine Herrman is that he was born in the city of Prague, the beautiful capital the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, and that his parents were natives of that city.^[1] H. A. Rattermann,^[2] without citing the authority for his statement, contends that Herrman’s father, “Augustine Ephraim Herrman was a prominent citizen of Prague and a member of the City Council, who kept a store at the Coal Market (a square in Prague) of the Old Town. His mother Beatrix was the daughter of a patrician. Kasper Redel by name, of whom nothing else is known except that he affiliated with the rebellious Estates which met in the Collegium Carolinum (Charles University) May 10–20, 1618. The father, too, was an ardent partisan of the so-called Sub-Utraque (Church of the Hussites believing in and practicing communion in both kinds, that is, bread and wine), he having joined in a Memorial Protest to the Emperor, thereby falling under the ruler’s Patent (of expulsion).”

Mr. Thomas Čapek has spent many years investigating from the original Czech sources the question of Herrman’s antecedents.^[3] Quoting Dr. Miloš Lier, assistant archivist of the Central Library of the city of Prague who aided him in his researches, Mr. Čapek writes, “If Augustin Ephraim Herrman had been a member of the City Council (and of course, a citizen) in either of the three cities of Prague—the Old Town, or the Small Side—we ought to have a record of it here. I examined carefully the archives and the registers of the three cities in question (and likewise of the Upper town of Hradčany), but, to my regret, I find no trace of Augustine Herrman; nor, for that matter, of Kaspar Redel . . .”

In 1889 Mr. Čapek published an article about Augustine Herrman in an Omaha, Neb, weekly. Soon afterwards he received a communication from Mšeno, Bohemia regarding an entry in the Memorial Book of that town, “A.D. 1621, the Sunday before Christ’s birth, on a cold day, our beloved pastor, Abraham Herzman went into exile with his family to the city of Žitava (Zittau, Saxony). His noble minded and pious wife did not live long enough to see this humiliation, having died of grief a month before his departure. . . . Before the parish stood a vehicle, in which was seated his family, consisting of a son, Augustine and three daughters.”^[4]

“Pursuing this clue, Čapek was able to confirm through the local historian of Mšeno that, “the last evangelical pastor at Mšeno was Abraham Herman, who had charge of the parish next the St. John’s Church, No. 199. When after the Battle of White Mountain on June 3, Ferdinand II issued a proclamation that henceforth only Catholic worship would be tolerated and finally, when, by an edict dated July 31, 1627, the Emperor made it known that those refusing to conform with the State religion must leave the country, many persons emigrated from Mšeno, while others embraced the Catholic faith. Likewise the last Utraquist Herman (Hussite) minister of the gospel, Abraham Herman emigrated to Saxony, to the city of Zittau; in consequence of which, many ancient books and manuscripts had been carried off to foreign lands. . . .”

Herein we see, then, that the above account resembles the one given by Rattermann only in that the elder Herrman was a member of the Hussite Church. In summing up the data so far found concerning the ancestry of Augustine Herrman, Mr. Čapek seems unprepared to accept either the Ratterman account or that Abraham Herman, the minister of Mšeno was the father of Augustine, the colonist. So for the time being we shall let the matter rest here.

We know for a certainty neither the names of the father and mother of Augustine Herrman, nor the precise date of his birth. Judging alone from an entry in his last will and Testament signed in 1684 in which is a notation, “Aetatis 63”,^[5] meaning, it would seem, that he was sixty-three years old when he executed his signature to the document, and would have been born, therefore, in 1621. Rattermann, on the other hand, places the date as 1605, again without stating his authority. However, there are indications that the earlier date is apt to be more nearly correct. We know from the so-called Schuylkill River treaty, to be discussed presently, that “Augustin Heermans” was a witness with four others to the signatures of the Indian chiefs. This treaty was signed in 1633; and had Herrman been born in 1621 he would have been only 12 years old; an incredibly early age for him to have been in America, no less than his being called to witness the signing of an important document.

This much, however, we can piece together from the dark labyrinth of uncertainty. With a fair degree of plausibility we can assume that his parents were well born and well educated and that they were members of the Protestant faith of Bohemia. We can assume, too, without danger of indulging in an extreme flight of fancy^[6] that young Augustine began life in Prague under favorable circumstances. From an early age he no doubt took a decided interest in his lessons and in outdoor life; and the instruction that he obtained from Nature, especially the study of geology, greatly influenced his later life. Prague at that time was an influential and beautiful city where young Herrman grew up among refined surroundings and among men and women of the world. He studied classical literature and probably many of the Oriental masterpieces. He was versed in at least six of the conversational languages of Europe. Perhaps at a tender age he began to draw and became particularly skillful in making childish maps. Geography in those early days must have had a special fascination for him and no doubt he took many youthful journeys to the far away and little known America; then a land of mystery and adventure even to the most informed. But the source material for this early period of Herrman's life is non-existent, and it is likely that he grew up amidst refined ease much like other well born lads of Bohemia.

But it was not long until this pleasant and leisurely life in the beautiful city of Prague was destined to be brought to an unhappy close. He could not have been very old when the storm clouds of religious dissension began to gather over Bohemia, to divide the people into two conflicting groups and to drive into exile those who clung to the Protestant form of worship. The parents with young Augustine fled first to Germany and made their way to Holland. It is possible that the Herrmans had kinspeople living in Amsterdam. Among the earliest documents signed by Augustine Herrman (1633) the name is spelled “Heermans”, probably a Dutch form, although the name, “Herman” dates back to the eleventh century in the chronicles of Bohemian history.^[7] In Amsterdam, no doubt, Herrman continued his education so rudely interrupted in Prague. In the Dutch commercial town he likely studied surveying and other practical subjects in order to earn a living in a world that already was becoming hostile. According to J. G. Wilson^[8] Herrman saw service under the Protestant hero, Gustavus Adolphus about the year 1628, but obviously if he was born in 1621, this would have been impossible.

Regardless of whether Herrman fought in the Old World quarrels, by temperament he was not likely to have become a successful soldier. As he grew older America took shape in his mind as the most desirable place to live; adventure and travel beyond the seas were more enticing to his active and vigorous mind than a military life on the continent of Europe with its ceaseless round of political and religious controversies. He lived in an admirable city to prepare his mind for the attainment of his desire to travel. Amsterdam was just then beginning to replace Antwerp as the commercial metropolis of Europe. Dutch ships and those of other nations were seen daily in her stately harbor; two great Dutch trading companies, the Dutch East India and the Dutch West India, had been lately chartered. Both were desirous to enlist young men in their ranks to settle in the new colonial domains. Then, too, there were other great private commercial firms like Peter Gabry and Sons which needed young men of ability and intelligence to act as their foreign agents. It is likely that Herrman met with little opposition when he first offered his services to the Dutch West India Company. Before visiting the mainland he probably made voyages to the West Indies and Curaçao.

 

1. Upon his application for citizenship in America, Herrman gave Prague as his birthplace.
2. Deutsch-Amerikanisches Magazin, Cincinnati, Ohio. Band I. p. 202.
3. Čapek, Thomas, Augustine Herrman of Bohemia Manor, a monograph. Praha, 1930, pp. 6–8.
4. Čapek, pp. 8, 9.
5. Not written on will by Herrman, however.
6. For an interesting, though somewhat fanciful and highly colored account of Herrman’s early life see J. H. Innes, “New Amsterdam and its people”, 1902, pp. 282–290.
7. Encyclopaedia Bohemia.
8. The biographers of Herrman seem divided into two schools; those who place the date of his birth around 1605 and those who pla it as of 1621. See J. G. Wilson’s account of Herrman in New Jersey Hist. Soc. Proc., Vol. XI. Pt. 2. p. 21.