USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 15
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the papers in the Hermen portfolio in possession of the Historical Society of Maryland, a sheet of paper with this certificate upon it :
" Possession of the Manor house of Bohemia Manor de- livered by Daniel O'Howry, the tenant in possession, to Casparus Hermen, the lawful and undoubted heir of Augus- tine Hermen, lately deceased, before us, this third day of June, 1690.
" WILLIAM DARE, " EDWARD JONES, " JOHN THOMPSON."
Immediately after this is the following entry on the same sheet :
" Quiet possession of the Manor house of Bohemia Manor accepted and received, this 3rd day of June, 1690.
" CASPARUS AUGUSTINE HERMEN.
"In presence of us-Wm. Dare, Edward Jones, John Thompson, clerk to the Commissioners of Cecil county."
The two first-named gentlemen were no doubt justices of the quorum, who with the clerk had been authorized to invest the new lord of the manor with the rights and fran- chises belonging to him. He represented this county in the legislature in 1694, and in the same year entered into a con- tract with the General Assembly for the erection of the parish church, school-house and State-house at Annapolis; the seat of government having been removed from St. Mary's to that place a short time before. He was thrice married ; first to Susannah Huyberts, secondly in New York, August 23d, 1682, to Anna Reyniers, and thirdly in Cecil County, August 31st, 1696, to Catharine Williams. He left three daughters, Susanna, Augustina, and Catharine, and one son,
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Ephraim Augustine, to whom the manor descended by the terms of the deed of enfeoffment given to Ephraim George by his father shortly before his death, and which has been referred to before ; and also by virtue of his grandfather's will, which entailed the Manor upon his descendants.
The land records of the county warrant us in believing that, at the time of Casparus' death, the Manor was but very sparsely settled, for up to 1733 seventy-five plantations had been sold or leased by the Hermens, most of which were disposed of by Ephraim Augustine, the grandson of the founder of the Manor. A few of these plantations were in Elk Neck and elsewhere, for Casparus was not exempt from the mania for the acquisition of land that almost always attacked the leading men of that time, and had ac- quired a thousand acres-part of St. John's Manor, which was located in the above named place, and another large tract between the Conowingo and Octoraro creeks, in the Eighth district. This tract was called the "Levles." It con- tained upwards of a thousand acres and included the farm of William Preston, which for that reason he calls "Her- mendale." The legal papers of this period contain many allusions to hawking and hunting, fishing and fowling, wild cattle, etc. And the considerations in many of them refer to the customs of manors in England. These leases were made for three lives or during the lives of three per- sons then living, and the tenants were to demean them- selves according to the manners and customs of tenants of manors in old England.
In 1715 one of these farms on the Manor was leased for £1 15s. current money of Maryland, or value thereof in good, sound, bright tobacco, winter wheat, barley or Indian corn, at the current merchant price in Maryland. The rent was generally made payable at the Manor house in the month of November. In many cases a good fat capon or two dung-hill fowls were exacted of the tenant as part of the annual rent. One of the most curious and suggestive
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
considerations mentioned in these leases, is that in the lease for the tract on which Port Hermen stands. It was executed in 1713, and the consideration was one ear of Indian corn, payable annually, if demanded in the month of November, and the further consideration that the lessee was to "keep two hunting hounds, that were to be part of the cry of hounds that the lord of the manor then kept." This was a low rent for 160 acres of land, but probably the tenant was expected to devote some of his time to the entertainment of his lordship, and it might have cost him more in time and trouble than at first sight is apparent.
Casparus Hermen died in 1797, and, as before stated, was succeeded by his son Ephraim Augustine, who was a minor at the time of his father's death, and who arrived at matu- rity about the year 1713. He seems to have been a man of business, and represented the county in the legislature in 1715,1716, 1728 and 1731. He died in 1735. His personal property was appraised at £875, and consisted of a large amount of household goods and eighteen negro slaves. His manor plantation, consisting of 350 acres of land, is repre- sented as being in a very bad condition. The house and out-buildings were in a dilapidated condition, the fences were down, and judging from the return of the appraisers, which is recorded among the land records of the county, it must have presented a forlorn and doleful appearance. The land was divided into four fields, and there was on it an orchard of about 450 old apple trees. The rental value placed upon it was only £10, Maryland currency, after the quit rent was paid. The disparity between the value of the personal and real estate is very notable, and it is more than likely that the proprietor of the Manor had neglected his estate while attending to the public business, and sacri- ficed his individual interest to the public good. The miser- able condition of his plantation was probably owing to the existence of slavery and the baneful effect which invariably followed its introduction. He was twice married and left
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
two daughters, Mary and Catharine, by his first wife. The name of his first wife, and also the family name of his second wife, are unknown. The given name of his second wife was Araminta. The records of the county show that . she was married at least four times; first to Hermen, secondly to Joseph Young, thirdly to William Alexander, and fourthly to George Catto. She is said to have been very aristocratic and haughty. She lived to a good old age and was buried in the lot a short distance southeast of the dwelling-house, near Elkton, now occupied by Daniel Brat- ton. By his second wife he had one son, who survived his father, but died before reaching maturity.
A paper in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, but which has no date upon it, shows that E. A. Hermen sought to obtain the king's dissent to the act of the legislature of the colony confirming his grandfather's will. This will, to which reference has been made before, was properly proved and recorded, but some malicious person tore out the leaves of the book upon which it was written. A copy of the will being afterwards produced, it was legal- ized by an act of the colonial legislature and admitted to record. Ephraim's object probably was to acquire a fee simple title to the Manor, as he did to Little Bohemia, as Middle Neck was then called, in 1724, by an act of the legislature passed at his solicitation, and which broke the entail of that part of his grandfather's estate. There is reason to think that his motive was a mercenary one, but it probably would have saved his family much trouble had he succeeded in accomplishing his purpose, as the history of the disputed succession to the Manor will show. Mary, or Mary Augustine Hermen, as she is sometimes called, because she assumed the Christian name of her great-grandfather, was of very weak mind; indeed, if tradition is true, she was almost, if not altogether, an idiot. Now it so happened that a cunning and designing lawyer, one John Lawson, made the acquaintance of this idiotic girl and fell in love, not
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with her, but with her fortune, and resolved to marry her that he might obtain it. In order to accomplish his pur- pose he sought every opportunity to be thrown in contact with the young lady, and was in the habit of taking her carriage-riding with him for long distances. Nor was this all, for upon these occasions, in order to secure the success of his well-laid scheme, he taught her to repeat, much like a parrot would have done, the proper answers to such ques- tions as he believed a jury would ask her when empaneled to ascertain whether or not she was compos mentis. It is highly probable, indeed it is almost certain, that during this time she was under the care of her stepmother, Mrs. Alexander, who probably was not cognizant of Lawson's nefarious scheme to entrap her, and who, if she was, may have been gratified with the prospect of being relieved of the responsibility of taking care of her. Owing to the strenuous and persistent efforts of the designing Lawson, the young lady was so well instructed when the proper time arrived, which was probably when she reached maturity and was about to take possession of her share of the Manor, that she answered the questions propounded by the jury so intelligently that they pronounced her to be of sound mind, and she was legally invested with one-half of the rents and profits of the Manor. Lawson soon afterward scught another opportunity to take her out carriage-riding. During this ride he and the heiress were married, and the deep-laid scheme that put him in possession of one-half of the princely domain that Augustine Hermen obtained in order to per- petuate his name was successfully accomplished. This hap- pened some time previous to the year 1751, for the records of the county show that in that year Peter Augustine Bouchell, who was of an ancient family that came to the Manor while the Labadists were in . the heyday of their power and prosperity, and who had married Catharine HIermen, the sister of the simple-minded woman, and John Augustine Lawson, jointly leased several plantations on the Manor.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
These two persons, the reader will observe, both assumed the name of "Augustine," in accordance with the will of their wives' great-grandfather. Young Hermen, the half- brother of these ladies, being dead, they were, or were sup- posed to be, the sole and rightful heirs of the Manor, which then was divided into upwards of fifty plantations, most of which had been leased by former proprietors for long terms of years, for what now would be considered very low rents. These rents were generally made payable at the Manor house, semi-annually, at Christmas and Whitsuntide. All, or a large number of them, were payable in grain or tobacco, and frequently a pair of good fat capons or dung-hill fowls were added as part of the rent, so that the table of the lord of the Manor might be well supplied with poultry.
The widow of Ephraim A. Hermen (then Mrs. Catto) was living at this time and was in the enjoyment of her share of the income derived from the Manor. During the life of Catharine, her husband, Peter Bouchell, (as appears from a bill filed in the court of chancery, by Joseph Ensor, in 1760, a copy of which is in possession of the Maryland Historical Society), received the rents from the lessees of the Manor plantations, and kept the accounts incident to the business transactions between himself and the other heirs, whose agent he seems to have been, and the tenants.
John Lawson and Peter Bouchell and their wives were in the enjoyment of the Manor as joint tenants for several years, and no doubt had a fine time; but the designing Lawson was at length brought face to face with an enemy, in combating whom his legal knowledge and cunning availed him nothing. He seems to have done the best he could to secure the property he so meanly acquired to his brother Peter Lawson. This Peter Lawson had received a power of attorney from his brother John and wife in 1751, which empowered him to transact all business appertaining to their share of the Manor, and it is probable that he con- tinued to be their attorney until the time of his brother's
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
death. John Lawson's will is dated September 3d, 1755. It was admitted to probate on the 13th of the following October. He devised all his property, real and personal, to his brother Peter, and the records of the Orphan's Court show show that his wife gave notice on the day his will was proved, that she would not abide by it, and that she demanded her third of the property, agreeable with the act of Assembly, from which it is inferred that her husband had presumed to dispose of her share of the Manor in his will. On the 4th of December, 1755, this simple-minded Mary Lawson leased her share of the Manor to the aforesaid Peter Lawson* "for 21 years, or during the lives of Judith Bassett and Michael and Richard Bassett, her sons." This is the first reference in the records of the county to Richard Bassett, who became a distinguished lawyer, and was a member of the conven- tion that framed the Constitution of the United States ; after- wards a member of Congress and Governor of the State of Delaware. He was also a warm friend of Francis Asbury, and a leading and influential member of the Methodist church.
On the day following the date of this lease, the widow of John Lawson gave her brother-in-law, Peter Lawson, a spe- cial power of attorney to act for her in all business matters pertaining to the management of her share of the Manor. In this instrument she convenanted not to interfere with him in the management of her estate; from which it seems plain that she had unlimited confidence in him, or that she was certainly the simple-minded mortal that tradition states her to have been. At all events, Peter Lawson seems to have been as securely invested with one undivided half of the
* Peter Lawson was never married ; about fifty years previous to 1787 he went to live with the Bassetts, who were his relatives and who kept a tavern at Bohemia Ferry, and continued to reside with them for many years, until the time of Mrs. Bassett's death. For some reason Mr. Bas- sett deserted his wife, and Lawson seems to have acted as clerk in the tavern. See Cecil Co .. Land Records, book 17, page 273.
L
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HISTORY OF CECIL, COUNTY.
Manor as circumstances permitted him to be. He is de- scribed as "inn-holder" in the lease from Mary Lawson, which indicates that he had succeeded the Bassetts as pro- prietor of the tavern at Bohemia Ferry, which still continued to be a place of much importance. A short time after this, in 1760, Peter Bayard, who was probably inspector of tobac- co, refused to repair the inspection house at the ferry, that place being one of the places designated for the inspection of that staple, which was then cultivated to a considerable extent upon the Manor and in that part of the county south of the Bohemia River.
Catharine Hermen, the reader will recollect, married Peter Bouchell. She died about the year 1752, leaving two daugh- ters, Mary and Ann. Mary married Joseph Ensor in 1757 ; and An, being quite young, was raised by her grand- mother, Mary Holland. This is so stated in a bill filed in chancery to compel Joseph Ensor (who had been appointed her guardian in 1757) to pay her her share of the rents. This Mary Holland must have been the mother of Peter Bou- chell, who had married a gentleman by the name of Hol- land.
Joseph Ensor was a member of the Ensor family who set- tled in Baltimore County very early in the history of the col- ony. At this time he was called Joseph Ensor, merchant, of Baltimore County. The family at one time owned a large tract of land just east of Jones' Falls, upon which part of the city of Baltimore has been built. Joseph Ensor is believed to have resided in North Elk Parish in 1760, for the birth of his eldest son, Augustine Hermen Ensor, may yet be seen upon the register of that parish, and was recorded in that year. In 1760 " he and his wife and Ann Bouchell, an in- fant by the said Joseph Ensor, her next friend," instituted a suit in chancery against Peter Lawson and Mary Lawson, alleging that they and John Lawson, for a long time had collected the rents of the Manor, as had also Peter Bouchell, and that Peter Bouchell had kept a book of memorandums
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
of the rents received from the said Manor and leased lands, and " which rents amounted to the sum of £1,000 or some other large sum of money, besides a very great number of dung-hill fowls received as rent on the said leases," and that the said Mary Lawson had actually felled, cut down, and carried away, off and from the Manor plantation sundry and great quantities of wood and timber, insomuch that there is not left on that plantation any quantity of timber to support the same, nor fire-wood sufficient therefor for any number of years, etc .; praying that they might be compelled to make discovery of the book kept by Bouchell and of the rents since received, and be enjoined to desist from the waste of the timber, etc .; to which the defendant replied at the April term of court, 1761, that on the death of Ephraim, their half brother, Catharine and Mary had possession of the said Manor, claiming and taking the same in right and quality of joint tenants in tail in remainder, according to express words and stipulations of Augustine Hermen's will; that the two sisters continued to hold the Manor till the death of Catharine, when her husband Peter Bouchell, took his wife's part as tenant by courtesy, and continued to re- ceive one half the rent during his life, and that no parti- tion of the Manor had ever been made; that the joint ten- ancy continued to exist till the time of the death of Catha- rine, and that Mary was entitled to hold by right of sur- vivorship, and that they were not obliged to make any dis- covery, etc. In other words, that Mary Lawson was the heir of her sister, Catharine Bouchell's part of the Manor.
As for the rents, arrearages and profits, the dung-hill fowls, etc., and the book of memorandums, they, the said defendants, demurred thereto, alleging that, inasmuch as the plaintiff's had no title to the Manor they were not re- sponsible for those things, and furthermore that the plain- tiff's had instituted three several suits at, common law for the recovery of the rents, etc. The demurrer was not sus- tained, and the cause remained in court till the September term, 1763. when it was stricken off the docket.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
In 1762 Ensor and wife suffered a recovery of all the Manor, the effect of which was to break the entail and give them a fee-simple title to the half of the Manor claimed by Mrs. Ensor under the will of her great-great-grandfather. Mrs. Lawson, who was no doubt instigated by her brother- in-law, Peter Lawson, some time afterwards, probably in 1765, resorted to the same legal proceeding, with a like re- sult as to her share of the Manor. It is worthy of remark that Samuel Paca, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence, once resorted to this legal fiction or process in order to effect a recovery, and by that means became in- vested with a fee-simple in that part of the Manor known as Town Point. Mary Lawson had resorted to the same proceeding in 1760, but Ensor resisted her in the provin- cial court, where the proceedings were had, and the court, after a full hearing of the witnesses on both sides, was unanimously of the opinion that she was not capa- ble of "suffering a recovery, by reason of her insanity of mind." However, in 1766 she gave Michael and Richard V Bassett a deed for a thousand acres of land each for the small consideration of "five shillings, and on account of the love and natural affection she bore toward the said Michael and Richard Bassett, the sons of her loving cousin, Judith Bassett." This fact indicates that Judith Bassett was a descen- dant of Judith Hermen, the second daughter of the founder of the Manor. On the 9th of December, 1766, she executed a deed in favor of Peter Lawson for her undivided half of the Manor, excepting the 2,000 acres which she had con- veyed to her cousins the Bassetts. The consideration named in this deed is five shillingsand an annuity of £100 Maryland currency. One of the witnesses to this deed was George Catto, her stepmother's husband. This deed effectually accom- plished what John Lawson's will had failed to do, and per- fected that which the Lawsons had vainly tried for many years to accomplish, namely, the acquisition of Mary Law- son's share of Bohemia Manor.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
The before-mentioned recoveries were made without any reference to the deed of enfeoffment given to Ephrain George Hermen, by the founder of the Manor, on the 9th of August, 1684; indeed it is stated in a legal opinion by Thomas Johnson, Jr., a distinguished lawyer of that day, which may be seen among the Hermen papers now in the possession of the Historical Society, that the said deed was not known to be in existence when the aforesaid transactions took place. The discovery of this deed put a new phase upon the mat- ter; and Ensor, following the advice of Daniel Delaney, another eminent counselor, who was of the opinion that the descendants of Casparus Hermen's daughters were legally entitled to the Manor by virtue of the provision of this deed of enfeoffment, set to work to hunt them up and purchase their rights.
This view of the case makes it necessary to refer to the daughters of Casparus Hermen, who the reader will recol- lect was the grandfather of Ann Bouchell and Mary Law- son. This gentleman, as before stated, left three daughters, Susanna, Augustina and Catharine. The first named mar- ried James Creagear, the second Roger Larramore, the third Abel Van Burkelow. Each of them was dead at this time, but two of them had left heirs. The heirs of Susanna Gra- venrod* lived in New Castle, those of Catharine Van Burke- low in Virginia. But Joseph Ensor seems to have been a man of determination and he sought them out, and in order to make his claim to the Manor doubly sure, he pur- chased any right they had or were supposed to have in it. It is curious to observe the old English custom that still prevailed when these purchases were consummated. A large number of these heirs constituted Samuel Beedle, (Biddle) their attorney, to invest Ensor with possession of
* The genealogy of the Gravenrods has not been ascertained, but they were evidently the descendants of one of the daughters of Casparus Her- men.
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
the Manor. And it is shown by papers in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society, that "Samuel Beedle attorney for Catharine Gravenrod, having taken possession and livery of all Bohemia Manor, or of some part thereof in the name of the whole, for Catharine Gravenrod, did deliver the same to Joseph Ensor, on the 27th day of Feb- ruary, 1767."
The Van Burkelows have been mentioned before, and it may be interesting to our readers to know that they were the descendants of Herman Van Burkelow, who lived with the Labadists in 1683, at which time he was twenty-one years of age. He was probably one of the original colony. The name has been applied to a small stream on the Manornow called Burkalow Creek. After Ensor purchased the rights of the heirs of Casparus Hermen, he, as was very natural, wished to get possession of all his lands. To this end he consulted his attorney, Daniel Delaney, and made the following state- ment : "Col. Peter Bayard and Dr. Bouchell were guardians to my wife and Ann Bouchell, her sister. After their father's decease, they kept the Manor plantation one year, and then divided it with Mrs. Lawson and Mrs. Catto, who had her dower in it." " Catto rented his wife's part to Lawson and kept it till Mrs. Catto's death, and now refuses to give up the half of her part to me, and has, ever since he had her part, stopped up the road to the Manor house. I want to know how I shall get possession of that part that falls to us at Mrs. Catto's death and get the road opened," etc.
This was in 1766, and it seems to indicate that Mrs. ('atto was dead at the time. Delaney recommended a re- sort to legal proceedings, in the prosecution of which Ensor was probably successful. In 1768 Joseph Ensor seems, after long continued litigation and much expense, to have been in the undisturbed possession of one undivided half of the Manor, for in that year he mortgaged it and some other land in Baltimore County, a part of which was called by the curious name of "Seed Ticks Plenty," to Charles Carroll, of
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HISTORY OF CECIL COUNTY.
Carrollton, for the sum of £3,191. In 1774 he became afflicted with the mania that often prevailed in the early history of the county of building a town at Court House Point. But the land was heavily mortgaged, and no person would invest in town lots so encumbered. Ensor accord- ingly induced Carroll to release twenty-five acres at the aforesaid point for this purpose, and gave him his bond con- ditioned for the execution of a mortgage on the ground rents of the town lots, which were to be leased for ninety- nine years, renewable forever for a yearly rent of not less than forty shillings per acre.
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