aforesaid creek, and so to the said creek Pechciesse up to the very head of it and from thence directly westerly thorowe the land untill it meets with the aforesaid creek and meadow Ground called Mankackkewackky aforesaid.”[1] A few days later he purchased thirty thousand acres of land where the township of South Amboy (New Jersey) is situated and another large tract from Newark to Elizabethtown.[2] The next year, 1652, he bought large tracts north of the Haarlem River and with Adriaen Van der Donck he owned the greater part of what is now the city of Yonkers.
It could hardly be supposed that during these two years Herrman bought all this land for himself. At this period he was in business to make money and whether it was made on land or sea it mattered little. If we look at Herrman as the first operator of real estate on a large scale in New York, we find that he had about the same visions for the development of the city as were entertained by the Astors one hundred fifty years later. Much of the land that he bought he soon afterwards sold. Other land he bought on something like a brokerage system. The “Raritan Great Meadow” he bought directly from Cornelis Van Werckhoven, an influential member of the provisional government of New Amsterdam.[3] As early as 1639 it seems that he owned some land on Manhattan Island. When he saw that the tiny Dutch village was growing rapidly he bought houses and lots in the close proximity of the settlement. It appears that these houses and fields he rented.[4] Other lots he sold by a method that seems to closely resemble our modern installment or contract method of financing real estate, as there are instances where the buyer did not receive the deed
