Augustine Herrman, Beginner of the Virginia Tobacco Trade, Merchant of New Amsterdam and First Lord of Bohemia Manor in Maryland/Preface
PREFACE
Few more picturesque or romantic figures have appeared in the early annals of American history than Augustine Herrman, first lord of Bohemia Manor. It is not because of his picturesqueness or of the romantic glamor of his career that a detailed biography of Herrman is thought advisable. Little more than fifty years ago few had heard of his name. One day in the North Library of the British Museum his map of Virginia and Maryland was discovered. So accurately had it been plotted and so artistically had it been drawn and engraved that soon scholars wanted to know more about the man who had made it. The colonial archives of Maryland and Virginia revealed Herrman to be a man past the middle age of life seated in state at his baronial manor house in the extreme northeast corner of Maryland. But few who had learned even this much about him were aware that he had had a previous career-the career of the first great American merchant and man of business.
Not alone as the beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, but also for his developing trade in general in New Amsterdam and elsewhere is his career worthy of serious study. The name of Peter Stuyvesant is known to every English-speaking school boy the world over; but the doughty old governor’s satellite, “lesser but greater” remains relatively unknown to the public at large. Few men did Stuyvesant hate more than Herrman—a hatred that burned to white heat at times with all the consuming energy of the tempestuous Dutchman's fiery nature; but there was none for whom he had more respect and none whom he could better trust in difficult matters: it is proper that we say this in memory of Peter Stuyvesant. For every difficult and delicate situation that required tact and ability, Herrman in variably was chosen. Herrman was one of the few, if not the only man in New Amsterdam who was able to read the fate of the province by the signs of the times. He saw that Holland in America was doomed and that England sooner or later would gain control of the country of Henrik Hudson.
In preparing this record of Augustine Herrman’s life, we have endeavored to keep as closely as possible to the actual facts. The colonial documents of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Rhode Island have been gone over carefully. In fact, there are few of the original colonial records that do not have something to say about Herrman’s extraordinary career. He appears to have traveled widely and was likely known all the way from Boston to Charleston, at least by name and reputation. It may not be an exaggeration to call Herrman “the first great American”. He was a fitting antagonist to Peter Stuyvesant, “Our great Moscovy duke (who) keeps on as of old-something like a wolf, the longer he lives, the worse he bites.” Herrman, on the other hand, was ever cool and collected, with a quiet sense of humor and a philosophic attitude toward life in general. Although deeply religious and highly intellectual, he was neither a bigot nor a pedant. No man of his day could undergo hardships more submissively; no one could dispense the hospitalities of a great house with greater ease and more charming grace.
Then, too, from being merely a biography of an important historical personage, this account may help to impress a little more on the public mind the importance of New Amsterdam in its relation to America and Europe. In 1650, with the possible exception of Plymouth and Salem, New Amsterdam was the largest village in what is now the United States; in point of commerce it had no equal; not even Jamestown. The story of the conquest of New Netherlands by the British is the story of English policy retold. How amazing the saga sounds now; that within forty-eight hours after Captain Nichols sailed up before Fort Amsterdam one hundred fifty thousand square miles of the richest territory on the Atlantic Coast were added to the British dominions: all without the firing of one fatal shot.
In the preparation of the life of Augustine Herrman I am particularly indebted to Mr. Thomas Čapek of New York and to former United States Senator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware. Mr. Čapek has been kind to give me suggestions from time to time, and he himself has made an exhaustive search of the ancestry of Herrman in the archives of Prague. I have made constant reference to the results of his researches that were published in Prague in 1930.
As one of the descendants of Augustine Herrman through his second daughter, Judith, Senator Bayard has long had an active interest in Herrman’s career. For a number of years he has lived on the site of Bohemia Manor and has gathered much material relating to the original manor house as well as other facts relating to the Maryland life of Herrman. These facts Senator Bayard has been kind enough to place at my disposal. He has also read the manuscript and has made many valuable suggestions. Without his constant aid and criticism this life of Augustine Herrman could not be as complete as it is.
Englewood, Ohio.
May, 1941.