In addition to being one of the foremost merchants of New Amsterdam, he was one of the largest landowners in New Netherland. It was in his capacity of a landowner, particularly his ownership of Bohemia Manor, that he is chiefly remembered; thereby obscuring for posterity his more spectacular career as a Dutch merchant and trader. But before Herrman acquired title to the vast tract of land in upper Maryland he owned considerable property on Manhattan Island and the vicinity. Although it is high probable that Herrman owned land in New Netherland prior to 1647, the patent dated May 15 of that year is the earliest extant. It bears reference to a lot bought by “Augustyn Herman” near Fort Amsterdam, adjoining the lands belonging to the “company”, that is, the Dutch West India Company.[1] During the next few years, his time being occupied with his various mercantile pursuits, he did not invest much in land. But in 1651 he began to buy heavily. March 31, 1651[2] he bought from Symon Joosten a lot on the east side of the Kolck, Manhattan Island. This land had been owned by two negroes, Paulo de Angela and Clara Crioole and their deed is one of the earliest extant in which a negro is shown to have owned land in America.[3] On July 17, 1651 Herrman sold his house to Cornelis Van Werckhoven, curator of the estate of Peter Gabry.[4] In December 1651 he purchased a vast tract which included all the land from “the mouth of the Raritan Creek westerly up unto a creek Mankackkewachky, which runs northwest unto the country, and then from the Raritan Creek aforesaid northerly up along the river behind States Isle (Staten Island), unto the creek, namely from Raritan Point, called Ourpage, unto Pechciesse, the
