The First German Colonies to Maryland
Bohemia Manor
The most distinguished German who made his home in Maryland was Augustine Herman, of German origin, born in Prague, Bohemia. Herman entered the service of the Dutch West India Company and came to New Amsterdam, where he attained a position of prominence and married a relative of Peter Stuyvesant.
When Colonel Nathaniel Utie, who was sent to the Delaware Colony by Governor Fendall of Maryland, notified the settlers there that the territory in question belonged to Maryland and declared that they must either leave or recognize Maryland's authority, Augustine Herman was sent as one of the commissioners to confer with the Maryland authorities and try to bring about a settlement of the difficulty.
Their mission failed, but Herman was impressed with the locality and decided to make his home in Maryland. The various boundary disputes had taught Herman the importance of having a map of the territory, and he propositioned to Lord Baltimore that he would make a map of the country if he were granted a certain amount of land with the privilege of a manor.
This proposition was accepted, and in September 1660, Herman received a grant of four thousand acres of land on the Elk River. The following year, having bought the land from the Indians, he settled in his new home, "Bohemia Manor."
Herman created a formidable map of the region and became actively engaged in the quarrels arising over the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. In 1682, Bohemia Manor was named the meeting place for Lord Baltimore and Governor Markham of Pennsylvania to discuss the question. It was also on Herman's land that the Labadist colony was established.
The Labadists were a pietistic sect founded in Germany about 1669 by Jean de Labadie.
Clue for Genealogists > Germans landed in Philadelphia.
Maryland Genealogy Records Online
Sources: The Labadist Colony in Maryland by Bartlett B. James; The Pennsylvania-German in the Settlement of Maryland by Daniel Wunderlich Nead, M.D. (Univ. of Pa.) (1914); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_Herman