The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-11-17

we are sorry to say that these men give
the planters of Maryland and Virginia a
very bad character. How they were able
| to speak of the planters of the latter State
we are unable to say, for they did not visit
it; and for the credit of the early settlers
OF the lower part of our county, we hope
that their austere and rigid doctrines had
biased or pre.judiced their minds, and that
the description is great deal too highly
colored. If the truth was known, we be-
lieve these men they speak SO disparagingly
of were probably as good, if not much bet
ter, than themselves Their conduct after.
wards proves them to have been men of
poor character and of little or no piety at
all. They speak of the planters as god
less and profane, and say they listen neither
to God nor his commandments and have
neither church nor cloister. Sometimes
there is some one who is called a minister,
who does not as elsewhere, serve in one
place-for in all Virginia and Maryland
there is not city Or village but travels for
profit precisely what they were doing them
selves, as their subsequent actions and con-
duct abundantly shows, and for that pur-
pose visits the plantations through the coun-
try and addresses the people; but know
of no public assemblage being held in these
places. "When the ships arrive with goods
and especially with liquors, such as wine
and brandy,-they attract everybody that
l. 70 ho AL,
nably together, that they keep nothing for
the rest of the year, yea, do not go away as
long as there is any left, or bring any thing
home with them which might be useful to
them in their subsequent necessities"
After the return of Sluyter and bankers
to New Castle they speak of Ephraim Her
man and Mr. Mol visiting Augustine Her
man, who had made his will and left
Ephraim, his eldest son, heir of his rank
and title, in other words Lord of the
Manor" and they thought that "Augustine
wished to make some change in his will,
because he had offered some of his land,
which he had entailed upon Ephraim, to
them" The will was not made till 1854,
and Ephraim was Lord of the Manor by
right of primogeniture.
The Labadists were miserably mistaken
in the suppostion they made, for if the
old man, then tottering upon the verge of
the grave, wished to see his son and confer
with him in regard to his lands. or his will
disposing of them, it was that he might
demonstrate with him about his connection
with the Labadists, for year or two after
wards he made codicil to his will, in which
he appointed three of his neighbors his ex-
ecutors, assigning as the reason for their
appointment in place of his son Ephraim,
that he adhered to the Labadie faction and
was using his best endeavors to proselyte
his brother and sisters, and he feared
the Labadists would become, through
Ephram's efforts, the owners of all his
lands. Indeed he refused to consummate
the sale to the Labadsts, and only did so
when compelled by the court, when Sluy-
ter and bankers returned from Wiewert in
1858 for the purpose OF establishing the
colony on the Manor. The deed to the
Labadists and their cronies was executed
by Augustine Herman, on the 18th of Au-
gust, 1854, to Peter Sluyter (alias Noors
man, Jasper bankers alias Schilders, of
Fresland), Petrus Bayard, of New York,
and John Moll and Arnoldus de la Grange,
of Delaware, in company.
The land conveyed embraced the four
necks eastwardly from the first creek that
empties into the Bohemia river from the
north, east of the Bohemia bridge, and ex-
tended north or northeast to near the old
St. Augustine or Manor Church. 1t con-
tanned $3.50 acres. The land is of good
quality and will compare favorably with
the best land on the peninsula. The selec-
ton of this tract of land did credit to the
judgment Of the two Labadists who Sc
lected it for the establishment of their com
munity. They appear to have been better
judges of land than they were of matters
pertaining to religion and pety. 1t adds
nothing to the credit of a dsreputable per-
son to assume name to which he has no
right; what then are we to think of these
men who set themselves up as religious
teachers and expounders of the word of
God, and who were SO Jealous in the cause
that they had espoused as to cross the
ocean in order to promulgate their religious
faith and establish a new community of
their proselytes, when we find that they
start with lie upon their lips and travel
under assumed names. There may have
been some reason unknown to US that sat
istied their consciences for acting in this
manner, but the means they used to obtain
the title to their land and their subsequent
doings while upon the Manor, leads us to
think they were men that made cloak of
their religion, and who were governed by
sinister and mercenary rather than by phil
anthropic and christian principles.
QUILP.