Augustine Herrman, Beginner of the Virginia Tobacco Trade, Merchant of New Amsterdam and First Lord of Bohemia Manor in Maryland/Chapter 9

by Leon Heck

Chapter IX

HERRMAN’S HEIRS AND THE DESCENDANTS OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILIES OF BOHEMIA MANOR

The exact date of the death of Augustine Herrman is uncertain. But inasmuch as his will was proved November 11, 1686 he likely died in the summer or in the early autumn of that year.^[1] This will in itself is very interesting as its provisions formed a subject of contention as late as 1700. Consisting of some fifteen hundred words, the will is written on a single piece of parchment and is preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical Society. It is dated September 27, 1684.

“In the Name and Good Will of God, the Holy Tri Unity, Amen”, the document begins. It first provides that a monument stone on which is stated that he was the “first author of Bohemia Mannour” be erected over his grave, next naming the executors of the will, his son Ephraim, his second son Casperus and his son-in-law Jn. Thompson. It further provides:

 

“I doe hereby further give, bequeath & devise, unto my Sonn Ephraim, and to his Heires Male from his body lawfully begotten, durande vitae . . . my above said Bohemia Mannour . . . unto my aforenamed Sonn Casperus and to his lineall posterities . . . my Bohemia river Middleneck, called little Bohemia . . . . I do bequeath & Devise Unto my said three daughters, Anna Margarita, Judith and Francina, and to their legall heires & Posterities from their Bodies Lawfully begotten . . . Three Tracts of land . . . named three Bohemian Sisters formerly called Misfortun . . . . In case My posteriall lines in time to come, Shall Cease, and bee thaken Out of the world . . . I . . . Depose and Comitt the three distinct Esstates, into the Custody of Most Honourable Generall Assembly of this Province of Maryland; . . . for the Use & propagation & propriety of a ffree Donative Scoole & Colledge, with Divine protestant Ministery, hospitalls & reliefe of poore & distressed people & travellars, to be by the said Generall honourable Assembly, Erected and Established . . . by the perpetuall name of the Augustiny Bohemians.”^[2]

 

The will is signed by “Augustine Herrman, Bohimian, Aetatis 63.”^[3]

Thus it will be observed that Herrman was desirous of having his name and that of his native country perpetuated in this country, as well as establishing a family of landed property by willing Bohemia Manor to his eldest son and his heirs, each being required to add the name “Augustine” to his own. The will is recorded in Liber G. folio 228 in the Office of the Register of Wills of Anne Arundel County, Annapolis.^[4]

Herrman provided bountifully for his five children. Yet there was a cause for litigation. For some unknown reason the section of the will providing for his daughter, Anna Margareta, was torn from the recorded copy in the Registry of Wills, Annapolis. At length Matthias Vanderhayden, her husband, obtained possession of the original document and produced two of the witnesses, Edward and Samuel Wheeler who testified signing the will.^[5] On June 9, 1692 Vanderhayden petitioned the General Assembly to reconsider the will.^[6] Upon examining the recorded copy it was indeed discovered that a page had been torn out and to “be imbezzeled feloniously purloyned, taken, carried and conveyed away out of the said office so that no such record remained thereof.”^[7] On October 12, 1694 the original will was declared valid and this declaration was confirmed in 1699 and 1700 and presumably the Vanderhaydens came into their share of the property, as we see no more about it in the colonial records of Maryland.^[8]

The year Herrman made his will Ephraim still adhered to the Labadist faith. Possibly as a consequence Herrman made a codicil to his will directing that three new executors be named, namely: Edmund Jones, William Dare and George Oldfield, “his loving friends and neighbors.”^[9] For their services Herrman allowed them the use of one hundred acres of land for twenty years for the sum of ten shillings per annum. The codicil was witnessed by John Cann, James Williams, John White, Samuel Land and William Hamilton, but it was never admitted to probate and for this reason Johnston believes it probable that the document was executed at New Castle, Delaware.^[10]

Ephraim Herrman, born about 1654, married Elizabeth Van Rodenburg, said to have been the daughter of the governor of Curaçao, September 3, 1679, in New York. According to Dankaerts’ journal this match was consummated after a series of romantic adventures, but afterwards Ephraim mended his “wild life and reckless manner of living”. Later, however, due to the very persuasion of the Labadists, he left his wife to join the bizarre order. In time he returned to his wife, doubtless before the death of Herrman, inasmuch as the codicil was never admitted to probate. According to the records in the Dutch church in New York, a son was born to them June 7, 1680; his name, Augustinus. A daughter, Augustina, was born June 1, 1684. Samuel was born April 20, 1687; Ephraim, October 7, 1688.^[11] Ephraim Herrman the elder died in 1689 and inasmuch as the title to Bohemia Manor passed to his brother Casperus, we suppose that Ephraim’s three sons died in childhood. Nothing further is known of the daughter Augustina.

Casperus Herrman was born in New Amsterdam prior to January 2, 1656.^[12] He was a member of the Council of New York and moved from that city to Augustine on the Delaware, later known as Fort Penn.^[13] He was a member of the General Assembly from New Castle and after becoming third lord of Bohemia Manor he represented Cecil County in the Maryland General Assembly.^[14]

Casperus Herrman was three times married. His first wife was Susanna Huyberts, a Dutch lady of New York. On August 23, 1682 he married Anna Reyniers; and on August 31, 1696 to Katherine Williams. Although a capable man and certainly more steady than his elder brother Ephraim, Casperus had by no means the energy, ability and personality of his father. He died in 1706, leaving his vast estate to his only son, Colonel Ephraim Augustine Herrman, who represented Cecil County for many years in the General Assembly. He took an active part in the social life of the county and probably raised the prestige of the Manor to a point higher than did his grandfather himself. He is said to have been a man of good breeding and wide culture and encouraged the arts, sciences and literature. On the manor stands a house where Dr. R. M. Bird wrote a tragedy called the “Gladiator” in which Edwin Forrest acted.^[15] Colonel Herrman married first: Isabelle Trent of Pennsylvania, by whom he had two daughters, Catherine and Mary. His second wife was Araminta . . . . . . . . . by whom he had one son who became the fifth lord of Bohemia Manor. But he lived only four years after his father’s death, dying without male issue, and thus passed away forever the last male bearing the name and title, “Augustine Herrman, lord of Bohemia Manor”.^[16] The daughter of the fifth lord, Mary, married John Lawson whose descendants married into the Bassett family. Another daughter, Catherine, married Peter Bouchelle by whom she had a daughter, Mary, who married Captain Joseph Ensor of Baltimore County. Mary Ensor’s first son was named Augustine Herrman Ensor, born in 1761 and acknowledged as lord of the Manor. On his twenty-first birthday he was thrown from his horse and killed.^[17] His brother, Joseph Ensor, inherited the title and estate, but he was regarded as feebleminded. It is related that this seventh lord would be accustomed to draw a circle around himself and defy anyone from entering his “manor”.^[18]

In 1787 the legal existence of Bohemia Manor came to an end after a period of one hundred twenty-seven years, the Federal Constitution forbidding all manorial estates and hereditary titles. In all there were seven men who held the title “lord” but only the first, the founder and greatest of them all, ever attained more than a local prominence.

We shall now briefly trace the fortunes of the daughters of Augustine Herrman and their descendants. Anna Margareta was born March 10, 1658 in New Amsterdam. About the year 1680 she married Matthias Vanderhayden of Albany, who was related to the Schuyler family. One of their daughters, Ariana, was a celebrated beauty. She was born in 1690 and was educated in England and Holland. In both countries she was greatly admired for her beauty and fine accomplishments and is said to have been courted by noblemen of both nations. She was twice married. Her first husband was Thomas Bordley of Bordley Hall, Yorkshire, afterwards Attorney General of Maryland.^[19] Upon his death, Ariana married Edmund Jennings of Annapolis, son of Sir Thomas Jennings of Yorkshire. In 1737 she accompanied her husband to England and while there she was inoculated for the small-pox, from the effects of which she is said to have died, 1741.^[20] Her daughter married John Randolph of Virginia whose son Edmund (Jennings) was Secretary of State under Washington. One of Ariana’s sisters married a Philadelphian, Edward Shippen, whose daughter, Margaret, also a celebrated beauty of her day, became the second wife of Benedict Arnold.

Judith, the second daughter of Augustine and Jannetje Verlett Herrman, was born in New Amsterdam May 9, 1660. She married Colonel John Thompson, a provincial judge and an intimate friend of her father. Colonel Thompson is said to have attained the age of 109 years. Although a wealthy man in his own right, with the “Bohemia Sisters” estate of his wife he was among the largest landowners of Maryland of his day. Their son Richard like his father attained a great age, being over one hundred years at the time of his death. His descendants have been prominent in Maryland and Delaware. Among Judith’s descendants is the Bayard family of Delaware which contributed many statesmen to the nation.

The Bassett family also traces its ancestry from Judith Herrman. Richard Bassett was a great-grandson of Augustine Herrman. He was a Captain in the Continental Army, a member of the Convention at Philadelphia which framed the Federal Constitution; a member of the Delaware Convention which shortly thereafter adopted the Federal Constitution; a United States Senator from Delaware in the First Federal Congress; Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Delaware; Governor of the State of Delaware; and United States Circuit Judge.

The third and youngest daughter of Augustine Herrman, Francina, was born March 12, 1662 in New Amsterdam, just a few months before the family was united at the Manor for the first time. She lived for a time in Holland, but returned to Maryland where she married Joseph Wood. She had a long line of descendants but her share of “The Three Bohemia Sisters” has long since passed out of the family. We have but one other person intimately connected with Augustine Herrman’s life, and her descendants to discuss. Anna Hack continued to reside in Maryland with her two sons, George Nicholas and Peter, and two daughters, Katherine and Ann, after the death of her husband. It seems, however, that she returned to Virginia, probably after Herrman’s death, and she died about the year 1700.

George Nicholas Hack married Ann Wright, daughter of Richard Wright. They had a son Nicholas and a daughter. Nicholas Wright married Elizabeth Howson (Ball) May 16, 1717 and the daughter married into the Moseley family of Princess Ann County, Virginia.

Peter Hack, the second son of Dr. George and Anna Verlett Hack was born at Accomac, Virginia about the year 1653. He was a colonel in the county militia and a member of the House of Burgesses from 1696 to 1712.^[21] He was a vestryman of St. Stephen’s parish, Northumberland Co., Va., in 1712.^[22] In 1690 he was ranger general of the Northern Neck counties.^[23] He married Mary Ann Mattrom or Mottrom, daughter of Spencer Mottrom of Northumberland and granddaughter of Nicholas Spencer, Secretary of the Colony of Virginia.^[24] Colonel Peter Hack had two sons, John and Peter and a daughter Ann, who became the second wife of Colonel Edwin Conway.^[25]

John Hack married Elizabeth Kirk and Peter married Ann Custis, daughter of Henry Custis of Mt. Custis, Northampton Co., Va., and Ann Kendall. Their son, Peter Spencer Hack, married Sarah Ann Garlington, daughter of Christopher Garlington and Elizabeth Conway, a niece of Mary Ball, mother of Washington.^[26] On April 22, 1746 another son, Tunstall married Hannah Conway, his cousin, thus uniting two branches of the family of Colonel Peter Hack. Peter Spencer Hack and Sarah Ann Garlington had two daughters and a son, Peter John Tunstall, who appears to have inherited property in Maryland, possibly that formerly belonging to his great-grandparents, for he settled in Somerset County, Maryland. His sister Mary married John Graham of Northumberland Co., Va., and his sister Ann married John Gordon of Lancaster County.

Peter John Tunstall Hack or Heck, as the name was beginning to be spelled, had two sons, Daniel David and Balser, probably born in Somerset County, Md., but later removed to Frederick County. Daniel David served in a Maryland regiment during the American Revolution, where his name is spelled both “Hack” and “Heck”.^[27] Daniel David Heck married Christina Lane, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. David, the eldest son, born Sept. 1, 1783 at Frederick, Md., served in a Virginia Regiment during the War of 1812 and in 1818 removed with his wife, Magdalena Spittler and his family from Botetourt Co., Va. to Montgomery Co., Ohio, where he became the ancestor of a long line of descendants scattered all through the western and southern states. Daniel David Heck who fought in the American Revolution married again, by whom he is said to have had a large family, many of whose descendants are still living in Frederick Co.

Nothing is known of the descendants of Katherine and Ann Hack, daughters of Dr. George and Anna Hack. It is not known if they married.

One could, if space permitted, continue with a discussion of the other numerous families who lived on or near Bohemia Manor at the time of Augustine Herrman. But that would extend to greater lengths than we have planned. The best account of these families and their descendants so far written is to be found in Charles Payson Mallery’s “Ancient Families of Bohemia Manor”, published by the Historical Society of
Gravestone of Augustine Herrman, Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland Delaware (No. VII, 1888), a work to which we have frequently referred.

Bohemia Manor as a great manorial estate has long passed out of existence, and for a long time out of even the minds of all except those who lived in its immediate vicinity. Since Augustine Herrman’s day the broad acres of rich fertile land of his ancient manor furnished subsistence to hundreds who in their daily toil did not have time to ponder over the events of the past. Indeed, for many years the very name of the first lord was unknown to many who were accustomed to tread the same paths and roads that he himself had fashioned out of the wilderness. Outside of a few tangible marks, bricks and stones of the first two manor houses, there is only one thing on his whole vast estate that recalls his memory to the people of today. On a stone slab about seven feet long and three feet wide we can still read:^[28]

AVGVSTINE R
HERMEN BOHEMIAN^[29]
THE FIRST FOVNDER〜
SEATTER OF BOHEMEA MANNER
ANNO 1661

This is the only monument which marks the passing of one of the most interesting personages in the early annals of American history.

 

1. See Johnston, G. Hist. of Cecil County, Md. p. 107.
2. Čapek, p. 26.
3. It is mainly upon this date that many believe Herrman was born in 1621. Yet, as before mentioned, we do know that Herrman was a witness to the Schuylkill River treaty in 1633. It is of course possible knowing the ambiguities and vagrancies of 17th century spelling and use of dates that 83 was meant instead of 63. This would have placed the year of his birth at 1601, four years before the Rattermann date. Moreover, a close examination of the will seems plainly to show that the word “Aetatis 63” is not in Herrman’s handwriting.
4. Penna. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. 15 (1891–92). p. 321.
5. The lower left corner of original will where the witnesses signed is torn away.
6. Md. Arch. Proc. of Council, p. 323; Vol. 13, Proc. of Gen. Assem., p. 418.
7. Penna. Mag., Vol. 15. p. 321.
8. Md. Arch., Vol. 19, p. 47; Vol. 22, p. 560; Vol. 24, p. 105. The reason for the destruction of the recorded will has never been satisfactorily determined.
9. Johnston, Hist. Cecil Co. p. 107.
10. Johnston, Hist. Cecil Co. p. 107.
11. Valentine’s Manual of N. Y. (1863). p. 773.
12. Ibid. Date of baptism.
13. Mallery, C. P. Ancient families of Bohemia Manor, p. 20.
14. Ibid. Also Md. Arch. Proc. of Gen. Assembly, from 1700–1706.
15. Mallery, C. P. Ancient Families of Bohemia Manor, p. 22.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid. See also Landrum’s Rise of Methodism in America.
19. Mallery, C. P. Ancient families of Bohemia Manor, p. 25.
20. Ibid. p. 26.
21. Journal House of Burgesses, Vols. for 1619–1712.
22. Meade, Bishop. Churches, etc. of Va., Vol. II. p. 468.
23. Hayden, Va. Geneal. p. 244.
24. Tyler’s Quart. Hist. Mag., Vol. VI. p. 283.
25. Hayden, Va. Geneal. p. 234.
26. Wm. & Mary Col. Quart., Vol. III, Ser. 2 (1923); Heck, E. L. W. Col. Wm. Ball of Va., London, 1928, p. 42.
27. Maryland Archives. Muster Rolls of the Revolution. Office of Adjutant General, Annapolis. Office of U. S. Adjutant General, Washington, D. C.
28. A new vault has been erected upon the precise spot where the old vault was and the original tombstone placed thereon. The tomb of Herrman is near the present home of Senator Thomas F. Bayard on his estate near the Bohemia River, Elkton, Md.
29. The inscription is usually regarded as the work of an unlettered artisan.