Cecilton traces its existence to Augustine Herman, a 1633 immigrant to America who became a wealthy merchant, diplomat, cartographer, and explorer and proposed the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal a century before it was built. In exchange for drafting the first detailed map of the Chesapeake region for Lord Baltimore, Herman received 20,000 acres of land in and around Chesapeake City, which he named Bohemia Manor after his birthplace. He made several attempts to establish a town in lower Cecil County named for his friend Cecilius Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore, but did not succeed. After Herman's death, his descendants founded Cecilton at the crossroads of Maryland Route 213 and Route 282. Lord Baltimore also granted land to many others, and great tobacco plantations became common in the Sassafras River area; one surviving example is Mount Harmon, a restored 17th century plantation west of Cecilton. Land in and around Cecilton remains actively farmed, and much of it has been placed in agricultural preservation programs to help maintain the area's rural character.