first founder and seater of Bohemia Manor."
Augustine Herrman was a Bohemian adventurer, born in Prague, who,
after a career of much vicissitude, made his way to New Netherland. He
became a force at New Amsterdam, and was an original member of the
council of nine men instituted by Governor Stuyvesant in 1647. His
connection with Maryland matters dates from his appointment by
Governor Stuyvesant as a special commissioner, along with Resolved
Waldron, to negotiate with Governor Fendall of Maryland concerning the
eastern boundary of Lord Baltimore's province.[6] This mission
effected, Herrman entered into negotiations with Lord Baltimore for
the drafting of a map of Maryland and Virginia, which would be
valuable to his lordship in bringing to a settlement the boundary
dispute pending between the two colonies, and in other ways.[7] In
this manner Herrman became invested with not less than 24,000 acres of
the most desirable lands of what is now Cecil County, Maryland, and
Newcastle County, Delaware, which he divided into several tracts under
the names Bohemia Manor, St. Augustine Manor, Little Bohemia, and the
Three Bohemia Sisters. It is of interest to note that among the acts
passed by the Maryland Assembly is one dated 1666, which provides for
the naturalization of "Augustine Herman of Prague, in the Kingdom of
Bohemia, Ephraim Georgius and Casparus, Sonns to the said Augustine,
Anna Margarita, Judith and Francina, his daughters," this being the
first act of naturalization passed by any of the colonies.[8]

[Footnote 6: Journal of the Dutch Embassy to Maryland, 1659, by
Augustine Herrman, in _Narratives of Early Maryland_, in this series,
pp. 309-333.]

[Footnote 7: A copy of this map is in the British Museum. No other is
known.]

[Footnote 8: _Maryland Archives_, II. 144.]

It was upon Bohemia Manor that the Labadists located their colony.
Danckaerts and Sluyter, under the guidance of Ephraim Herrman, made
their way to Delaware and Maryland. Upon meeting them the elder
Herrman was at first so favorably impressed that he consented to deed
to them a considerable tract, in pursuance of his ambition to colonize
and develop his estates. On June 19, 1680, the Labadists, having
accomplished their mission, set sail for Boston, to which fact are due
such interesting recitals as that of their visit to John Eliot, the
so-called apostle to the Indians, and their visit to and description
of Harvard College. On the 23d day of Jul