Augustine Herrman was a colonial cartographer and businessman. He was the largest exporter of tobacco in America.
Background
Augustine Herrman was born in 1605 in Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic. His father, Augustin Ephraim Herrman, was a merchant and a councilor of Prague; his mother Beatrix, daughter of Kaspar Redel, was a member of a patrician Protestant family.
Education
Spending his early years in Bohemia, Herrman acquired a knowledge of English, French, and German, and at an early age took a decided interest in geography and map-making.
Career
In 1618 Augustine’s father was outlawed for his political activity and the family escaped to Amsterdam. Young Herrman is said to have served for a time in the army of Gustavus Adolphus, but, forsaking a soldier’s career, he soon entered the employ of the Dutch West India Company. Later he claimed to have been the founder (1629) of its Virginia tobacco trade. In 1633 he was a witness to a transaction whereby the Dutch bought from the Indians all the land now occupied by Philadelphia. During the following decade he was engaged, apparently, in trade with Brazil or Surinam; in 1643 he went from Curaqoa to New Netherland, where, the next year, he became an agent for Peter Gabry & Sons, a great mercantile firm of Amsterdam. After the death of the elder Gabry in 1651, quarrels arose between Herrman and the sons which led to the severing of the connection. Meanwhile, Herrman had built up a large business in beaver skins under his own name in New Amsterdam; had introduced and grown indigo successfully on Manhattan Island; had bought large tracts of land on Manhattan Island and in the present state of New Jersey, not only for himself, but also for Govert Loockermans, another prominent merchant of New Amsterdam; and with his partner, George Hack, had become the largest exporter of tobacco in America.
Upon the reorganization of the government of New Netherland in 1647, Herrman was appointed one of Governor Stuyvesant’s “Nine Men, ” but on July 28, 1649, he was one of the signers of the Vertoogh or “Remonstrance” to the States-General of the Netherlands, by which act he gained Stuyvesant’s enmity. The vindictive old governor ruined him financially, together with his two powerful associates, Van der Donck and Loockermans, but in 1653 he was released from his creditors and for a while enjoyed the favor of Stuyvesant, who sent him on several diplomatic missions. Going to Maryland in 1659 to discuss with Lord Baltimore the Dutch-Mary- and boundary dispute, he remained in that province for the rest of the year, sketching a map of the territory. Early in 1660 he presented a rough sketch of this map to Lord Baltimore, who was so pleased that he ordered papers of denization to be prepared for Herrman. In 1663, the latter petitioned for naturalization, and three years later he and his family became citizens of Maryland.
Lord Baltimore granted Herrman land. This land Herrman erected into a manor of which he became the first lord. Until the American Revolution, Bohemia Manor was an hereditary manor. Until his death Herrman lived in considerable magnificence in the great house which he built on the north bank of the Bohemia River. He was buried in his vineyard, beside his wife.
Achievements
Connections
On December 10, 1651, Herrman married Jannetje Verlett (or Varleth) of New Amsterdam, who bore him two sons and three daughters. His second wife was Catherine Ward of Cecil County, Maryland, by whom he had no children.