who testified signing the will.[1] On June 9, 1692 Vanderhayden petitioned the General Assembly to reconsider the will.[2] Upon examining the recorded copy it was indeed discovered that a page had been torn out and to “be imbezzeled feloniously purloyned, taken, carried and conveyed away out of the said office so that no such record remained thereof.”[3] On October 12, 1694 the original will was declared valid and this declaration was confirmed in 1699 and 1700 and presumably the Vanderhaydens came into their share of the property, as we see no more about it in the colonial records of Maryland.[4]
The year Herrman made his will Ephraim still adhered to the Labadist faith. Possibly as a consequence Herrman made a codicil to his will directing that three new executors be named, namely: Edmund Jones, William Dare and George Oldfield, “his loving friends and neighbors.”[5] For their services Herrman allowed them the use of one hundred acres of land for twenty years for the sum of ten shillings per annum. The codicil was witnessed by John Cann, James Williams, John White, Samuel Land and William Hamilton, but it was never admitted to probate and for this reason Johnston believes it probable that the document was executed at New Castle, Delaware.[6]
Ephraim Herrman, born about 1654, married Elizabeth Van Rodenburg, said to have been the daughter of the governor of Curaçao, September 3, 1679, in New York. According to
- ↑ The lower left corner of original will where the witnesses signed is torn away.
- ↑ Md. Arch. Proc. of Council, p. 323; Vol. 13, Proc. of Gen. Assem., p. 418.
- ↑ Penna. Mag., Vol. 15. p. 321.
- ↑ Md. Arch., Vol. 19, p. 47; Vol. 22, p. 560; Vol. 24, p. 105. The reason for the destruction of the recorded will has never been satisfactorily determined.
- ↑ Johnston, Hist. Cecil Co. p. 107.
- ↑ Johnston, Hist. Cecil Co. p. 107.
