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- (Research):Hereman was reportedly born about 1672. His naturalization (Bacon's Laws of Maryland, 1720) indicates he was a Dutchman, born in Holland. Lazenby relates that his father, John Kinkey was in New Castle County in 1684 and thus must have been one of the very early settlers under William Penn. Ms. Lazenby indicates Hereman never bothered to learn to write in English, and signed his name in German script. In 1702, Hereman bought 350 acres of land on Red Clay (Red Bank) Creek in New Castle County, Delaware, which he sold in 1725. Hereman bought 600 acres in Cecil County, Maryland, part of St. John's Manor, in 1717. In 1720 Hereman became keeper of the Elk Ferry that ran from Court House Point to Old Field Point. Hereman reportedly ran a tavern and a plantation in Elk Neck. His grandson, Herman Husband, stayed on their plantation while he was young. Mary Lazenby includes several paragraphs about this period which are interesting if unsubstantiated. "Twilight was merging into darkness as the farm hands at Herman Kinkey's place prepared for the night, after a back-breaking day in the fields of the Elk River vale. One by one, before lying down, they repeated the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, by order of the godly Herman Kinkey. With these farm hands, in the roomy outhouse which was their quarters, was a solemn little lad named Herman Husband, grandson of Herman Kinkey. He followed them about their work when not in school; watched them tend the cattle and feed the hogs and with them rode the horses to water. He was reluctant to leave them after supper, and an indulgent grandmother placed his bed in the quarters of his friends, the trusty hired help of the farm. Little Herman had left his father's perfectly good home on the Sassafras River to come across the Elk to his Grandfather Kinkey's for some schooling." While Lazenby's account seems somewhat fanciful, Herman Husband himself referred to the same time period in his pamphlet "Some Remarks on Religion", which he published in 1761. In his words "My Parents were of the Society of the Church of England: When I was first thoughtful about Religion I was eight or nine Years of Age, as nigh as I can remember. Being at School at my Grandfather's, who I us'd to hear People say, was a good old Man; he used to tell me I was a bad Boy, and I found something in my own Breast making me uneasy for my mischievous Tricks. I also heard his Servants Lads say, their Master ordered them to say the Lord's Prayer and creed, when they went to Bed, and as I lay with them, I heard them say these by-Heart, before they went to Sleep. This, I thought, was what God required of me, and what I must do to go to Heaven, which Place I was not willing to miss of; but not having them well enough by Heart, I put it off yet, and soon after was taken Home to my parents." Hereman Kankey passed away when Herman Husband was eight years old, at which time he returned to his father's home on the Sassafras River. For more information see the book "Herman Husband, A Story of His Life", by Mary Elinor Lazenby, Old Neighborhoods Press, Washington D.C., 1940; and a compilation by Jane Williams, 1995. The pamphlet by Herman Husband is included in a book "Some Eighteenth Century Tracts Concerning North Carolina" with introductions and notes by William K. Boyd, 1927.
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