From:

"The Merchant, the Map, and Empire: Augustine Herrman’s Chesapeake and Interimperial Trade, 1644–73."

Author(s): Christian J. Koot

Source: The William and Mary Quarterly , Vol. 67, No. 4 (October 2010), pp. 603-644

Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

pp. 637-638.

"Herrman’s use of Bohemia Manor as a site from which to foster trade between the Chesapeake and New Netherland was especially important when English authorities began to enforce the restrictions on Dutch trade contained in the 1660 Navigation Act. Particular targets of Maryland officials were 'Masters of small Vessells [that] doe come into this Province, and putt off Goods, and lade away tobaccoes without takeing notice of the Governmt here or of the Acte of Parliamt for Navigacon.'  

"Facing increased patrols in the lower Chesapeake, Herrman’s land route was a good alternative for smuggling, and soon he began to trade with New Amstel Governor Alexander d’Hinoyossa. With rumors that English authorities were about to invade (as they did in 1664), the men drove a frantic trade, with D’Hinoyossa sending 'everything, for which he can find a purchaser' including 'the City’s mill-stones, the galiot and other City-property' to Herrman and several other Marylanders in return for tobacco. The trade did not escape the notice of Maryland authorities, who complained to D’Hinoyossa but could do little to stop the men. Only when English forces captured New Netherland in 1664 and the settlements on the Delaware River in 1665 did authorities effectively end this Anglo-Dutch trade.

"Nevertheless Herrman still argued for the possible benefits of an overland route to the Delaware River, convincing the commander of New Castle (the English name for New Amstel) to begin to clear a road between there and 'Mr. Augustine Hermans Plantacion' and the Maryland government to do the same in the other direction in 1671.

"This path still remained an important smuggling route to the Delaware River as late as 1697, when Maryland authorities complained that 'severall good Cart Roads between the Two Countreys [Maryland and Pennsylvania], especially one which is between the Head of Bohemia River in this Countrey, and Opoquiraing Creek [probably Appoquinimink River] which runs into Delaware River a few Miles below New Castle' allowed 'severall hundreds of Hogsheads [of tobacco]' to be smuggled out of Maryland. Though Herrman himself was long dead, his intercolonial perspective still influenced commercial patterns in the mid-Atlantic."