It scarcely seems creditable that Herrman would again trust Peter Stuyvesant or serve him again in a diplomatic mission; yet he must have been a man who could easily forget past injuries. However, there is no record that Stuyvesant ever tried to play the same trick upon Herrman, and whether the Newport incident was merely a graciousless prank we have no means of knowing. At least it apparently cleared the atmosphere in their relations, for in the forthcoming years it was not repeated.
In 1651 Herrman had married Janetje Verlett, daughter of Casper and Judith Verlett and sister of Anna Hack. In 1656 their brother, Nicholas the attorney, married Anna, widow of Samuel Bayard and sister of Peter Stuyvesant.[1] These marriages no doubt helped to clear the troubled conditions and to form alliances between the Herrmans, Hacks and Stuyvesants.
By 1653 trouble between New England and New Netherland was becoming acute, mainly because of the First Navigation Act (1651), an act which was heartily welcomed in New England both because it tended to promote their trade and because it had been passed by their Puritan brethren in England. On May 26, 1653 Herrman was sent to Boston with a reply to the letter of the commission and an abstract of “Passages” between New England and New Amsterdam.[2] Nothing is known of these transactions other than the fact that Herrman was able to appease the New Englanders and no doubt but what he acquitted himself with much credit.
On May 30, 1653 Stuyvesant wrote to Richard Bennet, governor of Virginia, recommending “Augustyn Heermans to his courtesy”.[3] This may have had reference not merely for
