Middletown transcript., 1868-10-03
BOHEMIA NJ AMOR.
Its Early Settlement by the :Lnbadists. i,

Its EARLY Settlement by the :Inbndists.u
Mr.: VIM, 7, Rood, of New Castle, read
bofnrc .. emall but apprtciative audience,
at the Scientific Lecture Room of the In
stitute, OH the evening Of the 9th, an adj
dress prepurod hr the Historical Saeiety;
He stated that the facts had hpcn CLEANED
from n publication Of the Long Island
Historical Societs, issued ip 1861, entitled
journal of Il Voyage to New York, and
Tour through several of the An,ericail
Colonies, 1G79-S0; by jasper bankers,
and Peter Sluytcr, of Wierwird in Fries
land" The translator, Mr., Murphy, had
added to this al Introduction stating fur
thcr facts II
The Labadists were Communistlc sect,
formed in Europe by the preachngs of
Jean de Labadie, Jesuit priest, born
near Bordeaux. i'll France, 1910, who
passed successivcly to the Jausenists, the
Carmelitc friars, Professionalism, and the
Calvinist church at Mon tayban, gathering
finally a pumcrous community at Amster-
dam
Continued persecution drove his followers
to lerfurdt Abbey, in Wcstphalia, where
they for a time enjoyed the protection of
its ubbcss, Elizabeth, daughter of the
Elcctor Palatine, until the Imperial Diet
ordered their expulsion, They then went
to Altoona, in Denmark where in 1874 de
Labadie died, and finally to Wiewird in
Friesland. Thence spme went to the
Dutch settlements in Surinam, and finally
bankers and Sluyter, having been DIRECTED
to explore Delaware and MARYLAND arr
rived in this country, and stHrhd from
New Castle across the head of the PENN:
sula, in 1919. They finally reported in
favor of what was called Bohemia Manor,
lying partly in Delaware, but mostly in
Maryland, between the Bohemia and blk
rivers, at the head of Chesapeake Bay
This tract containing about ~, 900 acres,
had been granted by Lord Baltimore to
Augustine Herman, of Bohemia, sGE.
veyor, who had surveyed and made map
Of MarTlaAd. His son Ephraim, by the
intiHcnce of bankers and Sluyter, became
Il convert. and persuaded his father to
make gift of 3,T50 acres to the proposed
colonists. The latter at length came over
from Wiewird. several families in number.
Buildings were erected; Sluyter pro-
claimed himself Bishop and his wife Alb
bcss. The whole of them, men, women,
and children, never numbered over hum
dred. They held their property in oom=
mon and lived with great austcritY and
modification. New converts contributed
their possessions to the public stock
They cultivated tobacco, of which they
had considerable plantations, and manu-
factured linen, but seem never as u con,lnu-
nifty to have prospcrcd, though Sluyter, who
it appears violated his own rules and held
separate property, became very wealth..
Finally, the community at Wiewird Msv-
ing dissolved, that at Bohemia followed.
y partial division of the property vas
made in July, 1858, three . nccks" of
land being conveyed to Herman Won Ber-
hclan, Nicholas de la Montaigne Peter do
Koning. Derrick Kolc hmap, Ioha Mol,
Jr llendrick Sluyter, and Samuel Bayard.
Sluyter kept one " nee x III his own right.
lie died i'll 1872, one Of the last surviving
of his sect, and directed by his will that
he should be buried IN the garden of the
great house of the society, on the Nam
or, where several other members were al.
ready inferred.
This contribution by Alr. Read to oup
early history is interesting and valuable.
At the close of his address, on motion of
Mr.. Aikman, vote Of thanks was ten
dcrcd him, and a copy regpesteA for fling
in the archives of the Historical Saciety.-:
Wilmington Commercial.