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 9
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by his untimely end the malediction of his father, who, as it was said, pronounced the curse upon him that he might not live two years after uniting himself with the sect.
The community was composed of a few emigrants from the community at Wiewert and a few persons from New York, together with a few more converts and probationers from the vicinity of the community in Maryland.
Sluyter sent to Friesland for his wife, who came over and was installed as a kind of abbess or Mother Superior over the female part of the establishment. In 1693 Sluyter be- came the head of the community, Danckers, then in Hol- land, having in that year conveyed his interest in the land to him. Sluyter and his wife seem to have been rigid discip- linarians as well as mercenary and grasping people. They had many slaves, and did a thriving business in the culti- vation of tobacco, notwithstanding Danckers spoke so con- temptuously about it in his journal a few years before. Slavery was against the doctrines of the Labadists; but Sluyter found it profitable, and introduced it into the com- munity on the Manor, where it prevailed while the commu- nity lasted. Probably there was no one who had the cour- age to report his bad practices to his superiors at Wiewert.
The community on the Manor was under the surveillance of the mother church at Wiewert, and before a person could become a full member of the former community their case had to be referred to the mother church. Sluyter acted his part so well that he was requested to go to Wiewert, in order that he might take an important place made vacant by the death of an eminent brother, but he preferred to remain on the Manor and traffic in slaves and tobacco, and lord it over the poor dupes he had under his control. This suited him better than a subordinate position at Wiewert, for he was a man better fitted to rule than to be under the control of others. A few years after he became proprietor of the Labadie tract, he sold the uppermost of the four necks to John Moll, Jr., who was no doubt a son of John Moll, who
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had helped him and Danckers in their efforts to obtain the land from Augustine Hermen. The conduct of these men in this transaction about this land looks bad, after the lapse of nearly two hundred years, and indicates that if they were not positively dishonest, they were very far from being good Christians. The consideration named in the deed from Sluyter to Moll is £112 10s. sterling money of old England ; but the great probability is that he got the land for nothing, and that it was the price of the duplicity of his father, the elder Moll. If the Dutch judges and officials at New Castle a few years before were no better than Moll, it is no wonder that the Swedes and Finns about New Castle were driven to take refuge in the wilderness in Maryland; indeed the wonder is that any of the inhabitants remained under the control of the Dutch, and that their province along the Delaware was not depopulated.
Two accounts of the Labadie community upon the Manor have come down to modern times. Samuel Bowens, a Quaker preacher who visited them in 1702, thus describes their curious ways: " After we had dined, we took our leave, and a friend, my guide, went with me and brought me to a people called Labadists, where we were civilly entertained in their way. When supper came in it was placed upon a long table in a large room, where, when all things were ready, came in at a call twenty men or upwards, but no women. We all sat down, they placing me and my companion near the head of the table, and having passed a short space, one pulled off his hat, but not so the rest till a short space after, and then they, one after another, pulled all their hats off, and in that uncovered posture sat silent, uttering no words that we could hear for nearly half a quarter of an hour ; and as they did not uncover at once, so neither did they cover themselves again at once, but as they put on their hats, fell to eating, not regarding those who were still un- covered, so that it might be ten minutes' time or more between the first and last putting on of their hats. I after- wards queried with my companion concerning the reason of
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their conduct, and he gave for an answer, that they held it unlawful to pray till they felt some inward motion for the same, and that secret prayer was more acceptable than to utter words, and that it was most proper for every one to pray as moved thereto by the Spirit in their own minds. I likewise queried if they had no women amongst them. He told me they had, but the women ate by themselves and the men by themselves, having all things in common respecting their household affairs, so that none could claim any more right than another to any part of their stock, whether in trade or husbandry ; and if any had a mind to join with them, whether rich or poor they must put what they had in the common stock, and afterwards if they had a mind to leave the society, they must likewise leave what they brought and go out empty handed. They frequently expounded the Scriptures among themselves, and being a very large family, in all upwards of an hundred men, women and children, carried on something of the manufacture of linen, and had a large plantation of corn, tobacco, flax and hemp, together with cattle of several kinds."
The colonists conformed in most respects to the mode of living adopted at Wiewert. They slept in the same or ad- joining buildings, but in different rooms, which were not accessible to each other, but were ever open to the father or such as he appointed for the purpose of instruction or exam- ination. Their meals were caten in silence, and it is related that persons often ate together at the same table for months without knowing each other's names. They worked at different employments in the houses, or on the land, or at trades, and were distributed for that purpose by the head of the establishment. Their dress was plain and simple, eschewing all fashions of the world. Gold and silver orna- ments, jewelry, pictures, hangings, lace and other fancy work, were prohibited, and if any of the members had previously worked at such trades, they had to abandon them. They worked for the Lord and not for themselves. The product of
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their labor was not to satisfy their lusts and desires, but like the air, simply for their physical existence. and hence all their goods and productions should be as free and common as the air they breathed. They were to live concealed in Christ. All the desires or aversions of the flesh were, therefore, to be mortified or conquered. These mortifications were to be undergone willingly. A former minister might be seen standing at the washtub, or a young man of good extrac- tion might be drawing stone or tending cattle. If any one had a repugnance to particular food, he must eat it never- theless. They must make confession of their sinful thoughts in open meeting. Those who were disobedient were pun- ished by a reduction of clothing, or being placed lower down the table, or final exclusion from the society. There were different classes among the members, which were to be successively attained by probation, in conforming to the rules of the establishment, and the final position of brother obtained by entire severance from the world. Their peculiar belief about marriage was, that a member of their com- munity could not live in the marriage relation with a per- son who was not a member of it. While it was all right in their opinion for Labadists and unbelievers to marry, it was very wrong and sinful for a Labadist to marry an un- believer. It was owing to their efforts to enforce this peculiar doctrine that Ephraim Hermen deserted his young and amiable wife and called down upon himself the dis- pleasure and maledictions of his aged and infirm father, who no doubt was shocked and mortified by his conduct.
One of their converts, who lived in the vicinity of the community, met with a tragie death. It happened in this wise: He had been induced to leave his wife, and had lived with the community for a time; when they supposed him to be sufficiently confirmed in their doctrine to remain stead- fast in the faith, permitted him to reside with his wife again; he was still in the habit of attending their meetings, and one day, whether Sunday or not is not stated, while going
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to attend the Labadie meeting, he met with a stray horse, which he took with him for the purpose of delivering it to its owner. The horse pleased Sluyter so well that he im- mediately began to covet it, and after service was over he placed the man upon it, in order to try its speed, intending, if that pleased him as well as its appearance did, to try and effect a trade with the owner. The horse ran away with the man, and, making a short turn in the road, he struck his head against a tree and was killed.
The colony, in a few years after it was established, appears to have been both detested and despised by the people in the vicinity.
In 169S there appears to have been a division of the land of the Labadists among the principal members of the com- munity, for Sluyter in that year conveyed, for a merely nominal rent, the greater portion of the land which, as before stated, he then held, to Hermen Van Barkelo, Nicho- las de la Montaigne, Peter de Koning, Derick Kolchman, Henry Sluyter, and Samuel Bayard, and, as before stated, sold another portion to John Moll, Jr. Sluyter retained one of the necks himself and became very wealthy. He died in 1722, and though there seems to have been some kind of an organization of his followers kept up while he lived, it is said that the Labadists were all scattered and gone five years after his death.
The Labadists gave Augustine Hermen a great deal of trouble, of which no account has come down to us, but there is abundant evidence extant to show that he bitterly re- gretted having given them any countenance. Nor was this the only trouble he met with. In his case the accumu- lation of wealth brought an accumulation of care and trouble with it. Though he had been successful in acquir- ing a very large estate, and held it by an indisputable title from the lord proprietary of the province, yet, notwith- standing this, he was put to much trouble to keep covetous people from encroaching upon his dominion and depriving
L. of C.
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him of part of it. On the second day of November, 1680, he presented a petition to the governor and council of the province, in which he recites that one "George Holland, with other envious persons, had coveted, and were gone about privately to take away part of his children's land in Bohemia upon false allegations and untrue bounds." These false allegations appear to have been, that the metes and bounds of Bohemia Manor and Bohemia Middle Neck in- closed a great many more acres of land than the patents called for. The petition recites that he had obtained a warrant for a re-survey, and that the deputy-surveyor, one Joseph Chew, after he had surveyed the land and made a plot of it, for which Hermen paid him nineteen pounds of tobacco, had run away; that he had kept a plot himself, which he had returned to the office of Mr. Painter, who, it would seem, was at that time in charge of the surveyor-gen- eral's office, and who had promised to send him a new patent in consideration of six hundred acres of land which he had relinquished to him for it. The petition refers to several other persons, and closes by stating that the peti- tioner " had no other refuge left than his Lordship's favor, and that he therefore prayed his Lordship's goodness would be pleased to grant, and command that his patent might be issued forthwith without any longer delay," and that he had been at "great charges and trouble about it already, and hoped his Lordship would not suffer his estate to be consumed by unjust officers that work by the rule of right and wrong for private gain." It was thereupon "ordered by the council that their clerk notify Mr. Painter to produce the papers in his office, and that a letter be sent to the petitioner, acquainting him therewith, and desiring him to transmit the certificate and plots, which he had by him, to ye clerk of ye council at ye city of St. Maries, with all expedition, who is to present the same to this board for perusal, when his Lordship will give further answer to the prayer of the petitioner."
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These proceedings of the council did not produce the effect that Hermen desired. Probably the council, like many that have succeeded it, was trammeled by red tape, and was more concerned about "how not to do it" than it was about how to settle the dispute and end the difficulty between Hermen and his grasping and covetous neighbors, for he sent the following letter, among several other letters and papers, to some one, probably the clerk of the council, who read it at a meeting of the council held at St. Mary's, on the 16th day of August, 1681, nine months after the writer had presented the petition before referred to. This letter is valu- able, as showing the peculiar style of phraseology that pre- vailed at the time it was written.
"RT. HON'BLE-My Lord :- My weakness and hindrance in my domestic affairs, having no overseer, makes me defer my coming down to your Lordship's until some time in September next. Meanwhile, John Browning and George Holland, having surveyed privately fourteen hundred acres of land out of my Middle Neck, which I have appointed a portion for my son Casparus Hermen, I have sent an exact journal to Mr. Lewellin, in your Lordship's land office, of my first foundation and seating of Bohemia Manor, to maintain my right and claim against those deluding alle- gations which false intruders may fill your Lordship's ears withal. If your Lordship would be pleased to peruse, at some leisure time, it will perhaps put your Lordship in mind of things your Lordship now not thinks on. I have also entered a caveat against John Browning and George Holland, desiring Mr. Lewellin to pass nothing in my predjudice. I humbly pray your Lordship be pleased to second it by your Lordship's commands. I have not, at present, troubled your Lordship with any other of my grievances, having given your Lordship too great a trouble with the above, which I hope your Lordship will excuse.
" Rt. Hon'ble, your Lordship's most
faithful and obedient servant,
" AUGUSTINE HERMEN.
" June, yje 13th, 1681."
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The caveat referred to in the above letter is as curious and unique in its phraseology and style as is the letter, and concludes as follows, written in a bold, large hand across the page: "EVERY ONE BEWARE OF A CHEATE." Immedi- ately following this letter, and running through a period of several months, several other letters appear upon the records of the council, in which he speaks of his journal, a copy of which he submitted to their inspection and guidance, and which was entered upon their journal.
After much tribulation, the governor and council ordered a resurvey to be made, which most likely was done, and the patents of confirmation were made to Hermen. These patents were dated the 14th of August, 1682. In them is recited the fact of the quarrel between Hermen and Hol- land; and it is stated that within the original bounds, as recited in the first patents, there were contained 2,000 acres of swamps, barrens and pocosons,* from which it may be in- ferred that, as the forests were removed, the water in the swamps dried up and the appearance of the surface of the country changed. The traet called "Misfortune" (probably so called on account of the trouble he had about his other land) was granted to Hermen the same year and day. This is the tract that he afterwards called the "Three Bohemia Sisters" (it included the land upon which the northern part of Chesapeake City stands), and contained by estimation 1,339 acres and rented for 27s. 6d. It was north of Bohemia Back Creek and bounded on the west by Long Creek. It would seem that Hermen was successful in establishing his title to Little Bohemia, and that right and justice were upon his side, and that the old gentleman had reason to congrat- ulate himself upon the successful vindication of his title. Probably he died in the belief that his son Casparus was le- gally invested with a good title to Little Bohemia; but such
* An Indian word, meaning low wooded grounds or swamps, mostly dry in summer, and covered with water in winter; usually covered with white oak or other timber.
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was not the fact, for it will be seen by reference to the land records of the county, that in 1715, thirty-three years after Hermen obtained his patent of confirmation for Little Bohemia, his grandson, Ephraim Augustine (son of Cas- parus), and his wife, Isabella, conveyed 883 acres of the same Little Bohemia or Middle Neck to Thomas Larkin, of Anne Arundel County. The deed recites the fact that John Larkin, the father of the said Thomas, had patented the land before Augustine Hermen had obtained his patent for it, " and that the said Thomas Larkin had made his right to the said land appear to be prior to the right of the Hermens; for these reasons, as stated in the deed, and for divers other good and valuable considerations, E. A. Hermen, who was then lord of Bohemia Manor, and his wife, conveyed their interest in the land to Larkin. This appears to have been the end of the quarrel, and proves conclusively that at least one grant was made inside the lines of Little Bohemia pre- vious to 1662, which is the date of Hermen's original patent for the land called by that name. The boundaries of the land, which Hermen at this time held by patents from Lord Baltimore, were, as well as can now be ascertained, as fol- lows: Starting from Town Point, at the junction of the Elk and Bohemia rivers, and following the Elk River and Back Creek to the mouth of Long Creek; up Long Creek to some- where near the Delaware line; thence south along an old road, the location of which is now unknown, to near the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal; thence eastwardly along the course of the canal to the mouth of St. George's Creek, near where Delaware City now stands; thence down the Delaware River to the mouth of Appoquinimink Creek ; thence up that creek and across the intervening land to the head waters of Little Bohemia River, and down it to the place of beginning. The reader will observe that this tract contained many thousand acres. The land is probably the best on the peninsula.
The eventful life of the founder of Bohemia Manor was
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now near its close, and on the 9th day of August, 1684, he invested his son, Ephraim George, with the right and title to the manor aforesaid by a deed of feoffment, which was executed upon that day. This deed, like many legal papers of that time, contains many curious provisions. The consideration mentioned in it is as follows: "Five thousand pounds of good, sound and merchantable tobacco and casks, and also six barrels of good beer or strong beers, one anchor of rum or brandy, one anchor of spirits, two anchors or twenty gallons of good wine, and one hogshead of the best cider out of the orchard, and one cwt. of good Muscavado sugar for my particular private spending; and lastly, if I should resolve to remove with my abode to any other place in the country from off the Manor, then he, my said son, is obliged to pay towards my said board the sum of 2,000 pounds of tobacco and casks; and if I should happen to go to New York, then my son is to furnish me with £25 in money."
The quantity of liquors mentioned in the aforesaid con- sideration appears to be very large at the present day, but it must not be forgotten that at the time this instrument was executed the manners and customs that prevailed in Eng- land in feudal times, when the lords and nobility kept open house and dispensed alms and charity with a munificence that would put to shame the generosity of modern civiliza- tion, prevailed to some extent in Maryland; and it was only fitting and proper that the founder of the manor should have the means to entertain his friends in a manner suited to the dignity of the position he formerly occupied. At that time, and for a century afterwards, liquor was considered as one of the necessaries of life.
On the 27th of September, 1684, Hermen made his will. This will, as stated in it, "was written with his own hand signed with his own hand, and sealed with his own scal," and proves him to have been a man of much learning and great ability. The ruling passion of his life, the great object
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for which he toiled and strove, appears to have been to found a family and, by doing this, to perpetuate his name. When he obtained his patent, more than twenty years before, for his beautiful and magnificent manor of Bohemia, he no doubt intended it for the possession of his eldest son, and expected and hoped that in the ages to come his descend- ants would trace their descent from him with satisfaction and pride. "He directs, in his will, that his monument stone, with engraved letters of him, the first seater and author of Bohemia Manor, anno 1660,* shall be placed over his sepulcher, which was to be in his vineyard, upon his manor plantation upon Bohemia Manor, in Maryland." The plantation is situated a few miles above the mouth of the beautiful Bohemia, where the old ferry was once kept, and where the bridge of more modern times is now located. On this farm, though in a dilapidated condition, may be seen his " Monumental Stone." It contains the following inscription :
AUGUSTINE HERMEN, BOHEMIAN, THE FIRST FOUNDER. SEATER OF BOHEMEA MANNER, ANNO 1661.
His monument stone is a slab of oolite, the kind of stone from which the line stones along Mason and Dixon's line were wrought. This kind of stone is very durable, and is proba- bly better able to resist the action of the elements than any other kind of stone. The slab is about three feet wide and seven feet long. No doubt the provision of Hermen's will in reference to this stone was carried into effect, and that it once covered the place of his sepulcher ; but many years
* The reader will notice the discrepancy between this date and that on the tombstone. This one was taken from a copy of the will, the other from the stone itself.
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ago Richard Bassett, who was a relative of Hermen and who was once governor of Delaware, erected a vault on the manor plantation for the safe keeping of the remains of his family, and removed this ancient historic slab from Hermen's grave and converted it into a door for the vault. This vault was erected some distance from the original burying-place upon the manor plantation, and in it were deposited the remains of the members of the families of the Bassetts and Bayards. The remains of James A. Bayard, one of the commissioners that negotiated the treaty of Ghent, were deposited in this vault, where they remained till a few years ago, when Rich- ard H. Bayard had them all removed to another vault in the cemetery on the bank of the Brandywine. The slab in memory of Augustine Hermen was then suffered to lie neglected near the site of the vault, and by some means was broken into three pieces ; which were gathered up and placed in the yard of the house on the farm near the bridge. The bank or ditch around an inclosure, which is said to have been his deer- park, is quite plain and is about three feet high. The view down the Bohemia from where the manor house stood, the site of which is yet quite plain, is magnificent and delight- ful. Bulls' Mountain and the hills of Elk Neck loom up many miles distant, while at the base of the eminence, upon which the manor house stood, the waters of the beautiful Bohemia sparkle in the sunlight as they flow onward to mingle with the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Owing to the removal of the slab, the exact place of Hermen's sepul- cher, like the place of the sepulcher of Moses, is unknown.
The will directs that all and every one of the inheritors or possessors, lords of Bohemia Manor, shall add to their Christian name and subscribe themselves by their ancestor's name "Augustine," or forfeit their inheritance to the next heir. He devised his Bohemia Middle Neck to his second son, Casparus, and his tract called "Misfortune," or the "Three Bohemia Sisters," he divided among his three daughters ; and, lest the great object which appeared to
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have been the ruling passion of his life should be defeated for want of heirs male to perpetuate his name, he orders in his will that, in that case, the custody of his estate shall be committed " to the Rt. Honorable Lord and Proprietary and most Honorable General Assembly, from time to time sitting in this province of Maryland, for the use, propagation and propriety of a free donature school and college of the English Protestant Church, with divine Protestant Minister, in free alms and divine service, hospitality and relief of poor and distressed travelers, etc., under the perpetual name of the Augustine Bohemia, to God's praise and glory forever."
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