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 7
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* Small cylindrical pieces of clam or mussel shell, like the bugles now used for trimming ladies' dresses. They were strung upon strings, and used by the Indians for money.
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aid and assistance, and that they be sent up forthwith. Also that a quantity of powder be delivered with Mr. Francis Wright, and the said Indians to be supplied out of the same, as the said Wright shall see requisite and convenient.
The governor and council further determined to go up into Baltimore County, and there to give the Susquehan- naughs a meeting about the 15th day of September next to treat with the said Indians about the peace and safety of this province and how to proceed (with the Susquehan- naughs' assistance) against any Indians now held and de- clared enemies of this province.
The volume containing the minutes of the council for the succeeding years is not to be found, and the preceding chapters contain nearly all the authentic history of the troubles between the English and the Susquehannaughs that is now extant; though tradition tells of a fearful fight between the Susquehannaughs and the Five Nations at a fort belonging to the former. This fort was on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, a short distance above the mouth of the Conestoga Creek, in Lancaster County, near a hill called Turkey Hill. Large quantities of Indian arrow heads and some small cannon balls have from time to time been found in the vicinity. The fight at the fort probably oc- curred in 1682, for the lower branch of the Legislature in that year made provision for the daughter of a Swede who had been killed at the Susquehannaughs' fort. Eight hun- dred warriors of the Five Nations are said to have invested the fort on Turkey Hill and made several assaults upon it, but were repulsed. They finally resorted to a stratagem which also failed. They sent twenty-five of their young men to the fort for provisions, stating that they would return as soon as they were supplied. The Susquehannaughs knew their treachery and seized them in the fort and burnt the whole of them alive. Those on the outside retreated hastily, but were pursued by the Susquehannaughs and nearly all killed. The Five Nations and the Susquehannaughs were
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constantly at war with each other for some years afterwards, when the latter, becoming much reduced, were nearly all exterminated in Western Maryland by the English. The few that were left were incorporated with the odds and ends of other tribes, and for some years lived along the Susque- hanna River, near the Conestoga Creek, in Lancaster Coun- ty. They probably were, from the fact that they lived near the creek of that name, called the Conestoga Indians.
CHAPTER VIII.
Augustine Hermen and others naturalized-The Hacks-Hermen has a dispute with Simon Oversee-He tries to establish a village-Trouble among the Dutch-Sir Robert Carr conquers them-The name of New Amstel changed to New Castle-Account of D'Hinoyossa-Efforts of the Marylanders to extend their jurisdiction to the Delaware River-Durham County-Road from Bohemia Manor to New Castle-Grant of St. Augus- tine Manor-Ephraim George, and Casparus Hermen-Original limits of Baltimore County-Erection of Cecil County-The first court-house at Jamestown-Augustine Hermen and Jacob Young appointed commis- sioners to treat with the Delaware Indians-Account of Jacob Young.
OF the history of Augustine Hermen for some years after he came to Bohemia Manor very little is known ; but he was probably engaged in making the map before mentioned, and there is reason to think that he followed his profession of surveyor, and also engaged in trade. In 1660 he applied to the council for a patent of naturalization for himself and his children, which was granted. He and his five children, and John Jarbo, Anna Hack and her sons, George and Peter, were all naturalized the same year, and were the first persons of whose naturalization any account has come down to us. These Hacks were no doubt the Hacks whose name has been perpetuated by being applied to Hack's Point, which is on the south side of Bohemia River, nearly oppo- site where the manor house stood.
The proceedings of council upon this occasion show that " Hermen had of long time used the trade of this province," from which it may be inferred that he continued to trade after he came here to reside permanently. The council book of this year shows that he had had a dispute with Simon Oversee (no doubt the same person who had translated the
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credentials of Hermen and Waldron upon the occasion of their embassy to Maryland in 1659), and had entered into bonds for settling it by arbitration. It appears from the record, that the bonds had been forfeited for non-performance of the award, and he wishing to bring suit upon them, alleged that the umpire, one Robert Slye, unlawfully detained them. He therefore prayed to have the bonds delivered to him to make good his demand in court.
The sheriff of St. Mary's County was directed to obtain the bonds and deliver them to the clerk of the provincial court.
It appears from the records of the council for 1662 that Hermen had surveyed land on Ceciltown River (the Elk River), in Baltimore County, for one Nehemiah Coventon and others, of Accomac County, Virginia ; but they having failed to enter the lands and pay the fees and costs of sur- veying, the council ordered that any other persons might take the lands and pay him his cost and charges.
In 1661 (as is supposed, for the letter is without date) he wrote to Beekman, then governor of Altona, as follows: " I visited my colony on the river (the Bohemia), and dis- covered at the same time the most proper place between this situation and South River. I am now engaged in encouraging settlers to unite together in a village, of which I understand that a beginning will be made before next winter. From there we may arrive by land in one day at Sand Hoeck, and may perhaps effect a cart road about the same time. The Maquas Kill (creek) and the Bohemia River are there only one mile distant from each other, by which it is an easy correspondence by water, which must be greatly encouraging to the inhabitants of New Netherlands."*
There is no reason to believe this village was ever built, the above extract being the only reference to it in any writing of that period. Its proposed location will forever
* Hazard's Annals of Pennsylvania, page 321.
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remain a matter of doubt; but it probably was intended to have been built near the head of Bohemia, or on Bohemia Manor near where Hermen erected the manor house. Mr. Vincent in his History of Delaware confounds it with Port Herman, a village on the Elk River, which was founded about thirty years ago.
The difficulties between the officers of the West India company at Altona and the colony at the city of New Amstel culminated in 1663, in the cession of the territory of the company to the city of Amsterdam, the authorities of which continued D'Hinoyossa as governor of the whole of their possessions on the Delaware. The next year D'Hino- yossa resolved to establish himself at Appoquinimink, where Odessa now stands, evidently with the intention of enjoying the advantages to be derived from the trade with the Mary- landers, which at that early day was carried on by means of the facilities afforded by the navigation of the Bohemia River .*
But in this he was destined to be disappointed, for the next year King Charles II. determined to dispossess the Dutch of the settlements they had made on what the English claimed as their territory. To this end he granted to his brother James, Duke of York, a patent for all the country from the Connecticut to the Delaware Bay. Shortly after this grant was made war was declared between the English and Dutch, and the same year New Amsterdam surrendered to an expedition under command of Colonel Richard Nichols, and the name of that place was changed to New York.
Shortly after the surrender of New Amsterdam an expe- dition under Sir Robert Carr was sent to Delaware Bay, which without much bloodshed took possession of the country according to Carr's instructions, in the name of his Majesty the King of England. The name of New Amstel
* Vincent's History of Delaware, page 413.
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was now changed to New Castle, and Altona was called by the name of Christiana.
New York and the country along the Delaware remained in possession of the English till 1673, when war again breaking out between the Dutch and English, they were conquered by the former. In the interval the government of New York was administered by Richard Nichols and Francis Lovelace, under both of whom Captain Jolm Carr was deputy governor of the settlements along the Delaware. The downfall of the Dutch in 1664 termin- ated the connection of D'Hinoyossa with the settlement at New Castle. He first appears in the history of that place in 1656, at which time he was lieutenant under Captain Martin Krygier, who was commander of the military force of the Dutch. In 1659 he succeeded Jacob Alricks as vice-director of the company in Amsterdam, under whose auspices the colony at New Castle then was. He appears to have been quite as hard-headed, stubborn and vindictive as Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New York, to whom he should have been subordinate, but whose authority he did not hesitate to set at defiance whenever he chose to do so. In 1662, William Beekman, who was also vice-director of the company and the peer of D'Hinoyossa, complained to the authorities at New York that D'Hinoyossa had suddenly departed to Maryland. This sudden depar- ture of D'Hinoyossa was in answer to a letter which he re- ceived from the governor of Maryland, inviting him to meet him at the house of Hermen, on Bohemia Manor. What took place at that meeting, or why it was held, cannot now be ascertained; but a short time after the meeting was held, Beekman accused him of selling every article for which he could find a purchaser, even powder and musket balls from the magazine. Beekman states that Augustine Hermen was one of the purchasers.
It seems plain that D'Hinoyossa studied to advance the interests of Maryland more than those of Delaware. He
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probably had reason to apprehend the ultimate extinction of the Dutch authority, and wished to have an asylum in which to take refuge.when the time of need arrived. After the conquest by Sir Robert Carr, D'Hinoyossa took refuge in Maryland, and his property, including an island in the Delaware River, was confiscated and given to Carr. D'Hin- oyossa received a grant of the whole or part of Foster's Island which is a part of Talbot County, in the Chesapeake Bay, from Lord Baltimore. No doubt this was on account of the favor he showed the English in Maryland during the latter part of the time he was in authority in Delaware. He was a soldier of fortune, and is said in his early life to have been in Brazil. He returned to Holland and engaged in the war against Louis XIV., and died in Holland.
Ten years had now elapsed since the fruitless attempt had been made to adjust the dispute about the possession of the west bank of the Delaware. During this time little or no- thing had been done to extend the jurisdiction of Lord Bal- timore to the eastern limit of the territory named in his charter. But the country along the Delaware being now in possession of the English, the council of Maryland took ad- vantage of this and renewed their efforts in behalf of the lord proprietary. At a council held July 28th, 1669, it was "order- ed that the country from the Whorekill (which was the name applied to Lewes Creek, and seems also to have been the name by which the eastern part of Kent County was called), to the degree forty of northerly latitude be erected into a county and called by the name of Durham County, and that the surveyor-general do make out the northerly bounds of this province as near as possible at the degree forty northerly latitude, and return his observations to the deputy-licuten- ant in council, and that Mr. Brooks, the governor's steward, be desired to provide the governor's sloop with men and victuals for the accommodation of the surveyor-general up the Bay by the 29th instan', October."
This is the only reference to Durham County that has
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been found in the records of council, and it is not likely that any effort was made at that time to locate the northern boundary of the province. But on the 26th of the next November, one Jerome White went to New Castle in the interest of Lord Baltimore, and finding by observations that the town was south of the fortieth degree of north latitude, he thereupon wrote to Governor Lovelace, saying "he could do no less than acquaint him with the fact." He also made demand for the town of New Castle and all the islands and territories thereunto belonging, lying on the west to the main ocean and Delaware Bay, from the bounds of Virginia to the for- tieth degree of north latitude .* But as the disputed terri- tory had been granted to the Duke of York, Lovelace was precluded from acceding to this demand and continued to hold the territory in the name of his Majesty.
Hermen seems to have always been on the best of terms with his neighbors on the Delaware, and in 1671 the au- thorities at New York ordered those at New Castle to clear one-half of a road from that place to Hermen's plantation, the Marylanders having offered to clear the other half. This year Hermen obtained the grant of St. Augustine Manor from Lord Baltimore. It extended from the mouth of St. George's Creek southward along the Delaware River, to the mouth of Appoquinimink Creek, and west from the Dela- ware River to the ancient boundary of Bohemia Manor, and included the country east of Bohemia Manor from the Chesa- peake and Delaware Canal to the head of Appoquinimink Creek, and from the ancient eastern boundary of Bohemia Manor eastwardly to the Delaware River.
A canal to connect the waters of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays was already talked of, and Hermen no doubt selected this land because his knowledge of the topo- graphy of the country led him to think the canal would be made through this part of the Peninsula, and he wished to receive the benefit that would follow its construction.
* Sce council book of that year, in possession of Md. Hist. Society.
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Though the manor of St. Augustine was within the limits of Lord Baltimore's charter there is reason to believe that Hermen never had possession of any part of it, except a few hundred acres on the river bank opposite Reedy Island, and probably a small tract lying near the head of the branches of Drawyer's Creek. For it appears from an examination of a paper in the volume of Penn manuscripts in possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, that Hermen the next year took possession under a license from Governor Carr, of a tract of land on the river side opposite Reedy Island, and that his sons, Ephraim George, and Casparus, settled there. Their object seems to have been by so doing to claim possession of the whole manor, if Lord Baltimore succeeded in making good his claim as far east at the Delaware River. Ephraim George, and Casparus Hermen, sons of Augustine, continued to reside in the territory along the Delaware for some years, probably till after the death of their father. The former was clerk to the court of Upland (now Chester) and New Castle, in 1676; vendue-master at New Castle the next year, clerk of customs and collector of quit rents in the jurisdiction of Upland and New Castle courts in 1677. Cas- parus, in connection with Edmund Cantwell (one of the ancestors of the Cantwell family of this county) obtained a grant of two hundred acres lying on each side of Drawyer's Creek, for the use of a water-mill, in 1682. He represented New Castle County in the General Assembly of Pennsylva- nia from 1683 to 1685.
The authorities of Maryland having failed to extend their jurisdiction over the country claimed by Lord Baltimore by peaceable means, resolved to try the effect of force. Accord- ingly a military expedition was fitted out in the year 1672 and placed under the command of one Jones, who proceeded to the settlement at the Whorekill and laid waste the country and devastated it terribly. The Dutch settlers there were more successful in their agricultural pursuits than the colonists in Maryland. And while the latter devoted all their
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energies to the production of tobacco, the former turned their attention to the cultivation of wheat, and were in the habit of supplying the Marylanders with it. It is said that this malignant and vindictive expedition led to the punish- ment of those who sent it, and that the colonists of Mary- land suffered much for want of food a few years afterward when their crops failed. Indeed a woman is said to have killed and eaten her own child during the time of this severe and terrible famine. She was executed for the crime, and when upon the scaffold declared her belief that the famine was a retributive act of justice sent by infinite wis- dom in punishment of the raid upon the Whorekill.
A certain Henry Ward, gentleman, as he is called in the act that was passed for his punishment, was a member of this expedition to the Whorekill. He was also a member of the council, and, though he was called a gentleman, he took advantage of his position, and represented to the council that he had lost a valuable horse while upon the expedition in the service of the country. The council allowed him eighteen hundred pounds of tobacco to in- demnify him for the loss he had sustained. But somehow it came to the ears of the council, in 1674, that Mr. Ward had not lost a horse, and had been lying about the matter, in order to get tobacco to which he had no right.
This is the first instance on record of an official of the province attempting to cheat the public. The council very promptly fined him four thousand pounds of tobacco, which appears to have taught fraudulently-disposed people a wholesome lesson, for no other record is found of occur- rences of this kind among the ancient archives of the province.
Soon after the settlement of his sons on the Delaware a road was constructed from Hermen's Manor plantation to their residence. This was probably the first road on the Manor. The west part of this road was on or near the track of the present road leading from St. Augustine to
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Bohemia Bridge. For many years after Hermen's death this road was called the old man's path. Its construction was a work of no small magnitude, for it was said to have been twenty-two miles in length. The ordinary roads in use at this time did not deserve the name of roads, for they were only spaces or paths cleared of trees, and often so nar- row and obscure that it was very difficult to follow them. It was not till 1704 that it was enacted that the public roads should be cleared and grubbed at least twenty feet wide, and that overseers should be appointed to keep them in repair, and erect bridges over heads of rivers, creeks, branches and swamps where they were required. This act also directed that all roads leading to the court-houses in the several counties should be marked "by two notches cut in the trees on both sides of the roads aforesaid, and another notch a distance above the other two. . . Roads leading to a church were to be marked at the entrance into the same ; and at the leaving of any other road with a slip cut down the face of the tree, near the ground." Roads leading to a ferry were to be marked with three notches. When roads ran through old fields they were to be marked by stakes discernible from each other, and notched like the trees. Even after this great improvement upon roads our fore- fathers must have labored under much difficulty when traveling after nightfall.
In the year 1678 Hermen and Jacob Young were ap- pointed commissioners to treat with the Indians. Their commission is as follows, and may be found in the first book of the land records of Cecil County :
" BY THE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL.
" Thomas Nottey, Esq., Lieutenant-General and Chief Gov- ernor of the Province of Maryland, under the Right Hon- orable Charles, our Lord and Proprietary of the same, to Augustine Hermen and Jacob Young, gentlemen, greeting: " WHEREAS, Complaint to me hath been made that several
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injuries and abuses have been frequently offered to divers the inhabitants of this province as to their stock of hogs, horses and cattle, by the Delaware Indians hunting upon their lands and driving away their stocks, pretending as just, right and title they have to the land, by reason whereof the inhabitants are very much molested and damnified; for prevention whereof for the future I have, by and with the advice and consent of his lordship's council, authorized and appointed you, the said Augustine Hermen and Jacob Young, to treat with the said Indians touching the prem- ises, and to know of them what part and what quantity of the land in Baltimore and Cecil counties they pretend to, and what satisfaction they may demand to quit their claim thereto, to the end that the same may be duly executed and paid, and the inhabitants of this province quietly and peaceably enjoy their possession without any further moles- tation. An account of the proceeding herein you are to transmit unto myself and his lordship's council with all ex- pedition possible. Given under my hand and seal this 14th day of June, in the third year of his lordship's dominion over this province, Anno Domini, 1678."
This Jacob Young, there is reason to believe, was the same man who was charged some years before with seducing the wife of Lears, the Swedish priest at Altona, but it was afterwards proved that, at thetime he and Mrs. Lears abscond- ed, the reverend gentleman had broken open Young's trunk with an axe, during the time he was stopping at his house, and most likely he had not used his wife as well as he should have done, and the court fined him heavily for assuming to exercise judicial as well as priestly functions. The court were of the opinion that the fugitives had fled to Maryland, and sent an express there to search for them. The priest did not take the loss of his wife very much to heart, for, a few weeks after she ran away with Young, he married him- self to another woman, which called down upon him the dis- pleasure of the dignitaries of the government, who censured
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him severely, not so much for performing his own marriage ceremony as for doing so on Sunday.
At the date of his commission Young lived somewhere along St. George's Creek, probably on the north side of it, for the Dutch claimed that he was under their jurisdiction. At this time, and for many years afterwards, there was a cart road leading from where Chesapeake City now stands past his house to the Delaware River, near Delaware City or Port Penn. This road was called, in the old writings of that period, Jacob Young's cart road.
In 1680 the governor of Delaware issued a warrant to sheriff Cantwell of New Castle, "requiring him to summon Jacob Young to appear personally before the governor and council of New York, to answer for presuming to treat with the Indians in this government without any authority."
This indicates that the treaty was made, and that Jacob Young lived on Hermen's Manor of Augustine.
The Albany records, from which has been obtained much valuable information respecting the history of this period, contain no evidence to show that the warrant was ever served upon Young. For this and many other reasons it seems probable that he fled to the wilderness between Prin- cipio Creek and the Susquehanna River and secreted him- self in that part of the county east of where Port Deposit now stands, and where a certain Jacob Young was living nine years afterwards.
Thirteen years had elapsed since the project of establish- ing a county to be called Cecil County had been proposed by Hermen and assented to by Lord Baltimore, and yet the county had not been crected. For fifteen years before this time, that is to say, from the year 1659 to 1674, the land that had been taken up and patented on the Western Shore from the mouth of the Patapsco River to the head of the bay, and on the Eastern Shore from the head of the bay as far south as Worten Creek, as well as that along the rivers on the Eastern Shore was described as being in Balti- more County. F
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The first volume of Land Records of Cecil County con- tains a number of deeds for land along Sa-safras River and elsewhere on the Eastern Shore, in which the land for which they were given is described as being in Baltimore County. The same may be said of the first volume of the land records of Baltimore County, in which it is stated that Bohe- mia Manor is located in East Baltimore County. If more evidence is wanting to convince the most skeptical that Baltimore County at first included the upper part of the Eastern Shore, it may be found in the fact that Augustine Hermen for some years after he came to Bohemia Manor and probably till the erection of Cecil County was one of the justices of Baltimore County. The same may be said of Captain Thomas Howell, who owned large quantities of land at Howell's Point on the Eastern Shore, where there is no doubt he resided. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the court for Baltimore County frequently met on the East- ern Shore, which was certainly the case in 1664, when it was held at the house of Francis Wright, at Clayfall, in refer- ence to the case of the captive Seneca.
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