Augustine Hermen
Index for Ward and Associated Families of Sassafras Neck, Cecil County, Maryland
For more complete information on the life and times of Augustine Hermen see the web page provided by Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr.
Augustine Herman (spellings also found – Hermann and Hermen). His daughter, Anna Margaretta Hermen, married Henry Ward (104) and then Matthias Vanderheyden, after Henry died. Augustine Hermen married first Jannetje Marie Varleth and second, Catherine Ward. Herman's second wife, a Miss Catherine Ward, one of the original Ward family members at the time the Rent Roll was made in 1707, of whom little is known but to whom he was married sometime after 1665. Her name may be Mary Catherine Ward. No doubt she stirred Sluyter's venom by refusing to be converted to the Labadist faith. Sluyter described her as "a miserable, doubly miserable wife... All his children have been compelled on her account to leave their father's house." |
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Descendants of Augustine Ephraim Hermen in genealogy report format. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this information, especially Dan Harding. Please let me know if I have made any errors.
Augustine Herman was the son of Augustine Ephraim Hermen and Beatrice Von Redel.
Born in 1605 in Prague, Bohemia. At the bottom of his last will there is a notation perhaps not in his writing, "age 68", which has led to much controversy about his age because it would place his birth in 1621, only twelve years before he was taking part in a treaty with the Indians in what are now the suburbs of Philadelphia. The weight of authority seems to be that he was born in Prague about 1605.
Herman first traveled on Cecil’s soil in the mid 1600s. He was dispatched to carry messages from Lord Baltimore to Dutch leaders of the land along Delaware Bay. He quickly became an important man in Maryland. He was an expert map maker by talent, and after charting Maryland, he received extensive Cecil land holdings as payment. Herman was also considered a visionary. He had the vision to break Cecil County away from Baltimore County, which in fact happened in 1674. He also had a vision to carve a canal between the Elk River and Delaware Bay. Though this project did not happen during his lifetime, it did become a reality in 1829 when the C&D Canal opened for business. Herman is one of Cecil County’s founding fathers, and he lived at his treasured homestead "Bohemia Manor", on the Bohemia River, until his death in 1686.
More information about Augustine Hermen.
Will: Herman, Augustine, Bohemia Manor, 27th Sept., 1684. 10th Aug., 1686. Will devises that his estate shall be equally enjoyed by all his children. Overseers William Dare, Edward Jones, George Oldfield to look after estate and protect the entail. Testator sets forth that he so appoints overseers because his eldest Ephriam has attached himself to the Labadist faction of religion and is seeking to persuade his brother Casparus and sisters to join him. Test: Samuel Wheeler, Robert Kemble, Richard Edmonds, George Oldfield. |
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Augustine Herman left instructions in his will that a marble slab, like a table, should be placed over his own grave and marked "Augustine Herman, Bohemian, the first founder and seater of Bohemia Manor, anno 1661." In later years the slab, broken in three pieces, was placed against the side of the present farm house at the manor seat where it remained for many years. Senator Bayard had the old stone restored to its original position when he came into possession of Bohemia Manor in 1920. |
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Last Updated: March 5, 2002.