Page:Augustine Herrman, beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, merchant of New Amsterdam and first lord of Bohemia manor in Maryland (1941).djvu/103

 was conferred upon an American citizen, though of course then a British subject. To give extra weight to the title Herrman was awarded a special seal, which appears to have been authorized for use in certain official transactions. For instance, in protecting owners from runaway slaves and servants, Herrman’s seal was as authoritative as that of Lord Baltimore. Herrman was authorized to charge one shilling in each instance of offering such protection.

Baltimore’s patents to Herrman were particularly liberal. In addition to Bohemia Manor, “Little Bohemia Manor” was granted in 1671 intended primarily for Herrman’s second son, Casperus. Soon afterwards St. Augustine Manor was added, to which, however, the family did not long hold title because of certain legal technicalities. For his daughters he was granted in 1682 “The Three Bohemia Sisters”. Altogether Herrman in the height of his prosperity must have been in possession of between twenty and twenty-five thousand acres of the most fertile land on the Atlantic coast, and was undoubtedly among the largest private landowners of America of the seventeenth century. As early as 1661 it was his intention to establish a system of land tenure whereby each tenant farmer should cultivate a small piece of land, each employing a few negroes. In a letter to Beeckman dated that year he tells of his troubles and difficulties in getting people to settle and that “the Indians are becoming a nuisance”

During the first two or three years of his residence at Bohemia Manor, Herrman appears to have continued to engage in business activities, no doubt doing a certain amount of ship-