to the lot.[1] On one occasion a curious case was tried before the council in which one Severyn Laurens brought suit against Herrman to compel him to receive wampum in payment of the rent of a farm he had leased. The council decided that Laurens must pay his rent in grain as wampum was not “merchantable pay.”[2] Just as tobacco was used as a form of money in Virginia and Maryland, so, no doubt, grain was so used in the early Dutch days.[3]
Herrman owned a large farm or bouwery on the site of the present Bowery. On this farm, Herrman had an orchard in which he took a good deal of pride. As late as the end of the eighteenth century the term, “Herman’s orchard” was used to designate the district although, of course, the orchard had long ago disappeared. Adjoining the Herrman farm was the bouwery of the Director General, Peter Stuyvesant. Beyond a doubt they were quarrelsome neighbors, though it seems that they were able to get along socially better than politically, as we shall presently see; for in the next chapter we shall have occasion to discuss the historic controversy between the two. In passing we might observe at this point that much of the documentary evidence goes to show that while Herrman and Stuyvesant appeared to the world at large as implacable enemies, they secretly entertained a mutual respect and liking for each other in their private lives. They were among the first to erect “country estates” on the site of the present Bowery and they were influential in bringing other rich and influential citizens out from the narrow confines of New Amsterdam proper. By 1660 there were a number of good houses on the
