USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 4
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the churches that had called him and labored from 1754 to 1757, when he died at the home of Mrs. Bevier, at Wawarsing, a fortnight after his ordination by the Coetus at Marble- town, and before October 4, when the Coetus notified the Classis that they had taken the matter of the ordination into their hands. Hend- rick was unmarried.
Anna, the youngest daughter of Dominie Frelinghuysen, married the Rev. William Jack- son, pastor from 1757 to July 25, 1813, of Bergen and Staten Island. She was the only child to reach old age, and died May 3, 1810, aged seventy-two years.
Margaret, the older of Dominie Frelinghuy- sen's daughters, was born November 12, 1737; died at Jamaica, Long Island, December 23, 1757 ; married, June 29, 1756, the Rev. Thomas Romeyn, pastor at Jamaica and Oyster Bay. Their only child was Theodorus Frelinghuysen Romeyn, who studied theology under Dr. Liv- ingston, was licensed in 1783, and succeeded his grandfather, uncle and Dr. Hardenbergh as pastor at Raritan in 1784. He died unmar- ried of fever, August, 1785.
(II) John, the second son of the Rev. Theo- dorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, was born at Three Mile Run, New Jersey, in 1727; died suddenly at the home of his mother's parents, Flatbush, Long Island, September 15, 1754, while on his way to attend what proved to be the last meeting of the united Coetus of New York ; as April 15, 1755, his brother, Theodore, issued his famous call for a special meeting of the Coetus for May 30, which organized the American Classis, split the church into Coetus and Conferentie parties, and practically de- clared the independence of the Reformed church in this country. John was a man of greater suavity than his father, but was equally firm in upholding the claims of spiritual versus formal christianity, and was distinguished for his gifts in the pulpit, for his assiduity in train- ing the young, for his zealous endeavors to raise up worthy candidates for the sacred office, and for his labors as peacemaker in the Arondeus and other controversies of his day. From the Nascent Theological Seminary in his own home, on the two hundred acre farm, pur- chased by his father, at Three Mile Run, July 17, 1744, and built of bricks brought by John himself from Holland, where he trained Hard- enbergh, Jackson, Leydt and others, was the beginning of Queen's, now Rutgers College, of which his pupil, Hardenbergh, was the first president.
About 1839, when the Dorsius controversy
was at its height, his father sent him to Dorsius for instruction, and in a certificate of the latter's character, written April 14, 1740, says, "Dominie Dorsius is a learned, gifted, gra- ciously-endowed and faithful minister, whose services moreover have not remained without a blessing. I have therefore gladly committed and entrusted one of my sons, Johannes by name, to the instruction and tuition of his Reverence. He also has his lodgings and his board with him. It is also possible that our oldest son, Theodore, who has already studied Latin under Dominie Van Sandvoordt, for some years, will soon be sent to his Reverence for instruction. Such then is my opinion of his Reverence." After his father's death, the churches at New Brunswick and Six Mile Run cojointly called the Rev. John Leydt, who was one of the first three students prepared and examined by the Coetus in this country. The other three churches, Raritan, Harlingen and Readington, united and called John Fre- linghuysen, at that time studying under the Classis of Amsterdam, the minute of his ordination by that body, July 21, 1749, reads : "Rev. John Frelinghuysen, S. S. Min. Cand. was admitted after exhibiting his laudable certificates to preach before the Rev. Classis, in proof of his qualifications as a preacher. This he did on Heb. 13:14, 'For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come,' and was listened to with pleasure. The exam- iner J. V. D. Broel then proceeded to the exam- ination in the languages viz., on Psalm I, and I Cor. I; and in Sacred Theology. He gave so much satisfaction in both, that, by the unani- mous consent of all the members present. he was considered worthy of performing the duties of the Sacred Ministry. They all ex- pressed the wish for the Lord's blessing upon him. The condemned opinion of Roel and Bakker were repudiated. He declared him- self orthodox on the subject of the Post Acts of the Synod of Dort, and promised ,to read the three questions without modification, in the form for baptizing children. He then sign- ed the Formulae of Concord, and he was sub- sequently ordained to the Sacred Ministry in the usual manner by the Rev. Examiner, with prayer and supplication to God." (Acts xii., 179).
After a long and tedious passage home, he arrived at Raritan in midsummer, 1750, and preached his introductory sermons, at Raritan, August 3, from Psalm, 45:16, "Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayest make princes in all lands ;" at Reading-
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ton, on August 10, from Zechariah, 4:6, and in the afternoon from Zechariah, 6:12; and on August 17, at Harlingen, from Psalm, 133:1, "Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity." He had begun his work hardly a month before trouble began to arise, and Rynier Van Nest, or Vechte, one of the Harlingen elders wrote a complain- ing letter to the Coetus and presented it at the afternoon session of that body, September 12, 1750. "The Coetus concluded that Dominie Du Buis should prepare a reply, suggesting peaceful considerations." At the next session of the Coetus, September 9 to 17, 1751, the Rev. John Frelinghuysen and his elder, S. Van Arsdalen, were received as members, and the Harlingen difficulties were considered. The trouble was one of the old aftermaths of the old Raritan dispute. Dominie Coens had begun- the trouble with the malcontents as early as 1728, perhaps earlier, by holding services in their barns and organizing a consistory for them. Dominie Arondeus, a formal, unevan- gelical man, who with Dominies Antonides and De Ronde, seem to have spent most of their time fomenting discord in various places, had continued the evil work, as late as 1749, and in one of his last sermons, old Dominie Theodorus Jacobus says, "We are yearly still visited by one in the service of the malcontents, who like Dictrephes, prates against us woth malicious words and in his zeal without knowledge, rails at us as accursed heretics; but may it not be laid to his charge." Since then there had been in the congregation two consistories, one of the so-called disaffected, and the other of Dominie Frelinghuysen. These two parties were inclined to unite but they could not agree upon the terms. Consequently the disaffected had brought the matter before the Coetus for decision. "After mature deliberation, it was concluded that two elders and two deacons of Dominie Frelinghuysen, with one elder and one deacon of the dissatisfied, should, together with Domi- nie Frelinghuysen, choose an elder and a dea- con from the number of the dissatisfied, who being ordained, one elder and deacon of Domi- nie Frelinghuysen, and the rest of the dissatis- fied should resign; and thus the two newly chosen with the four remaining ones of Domi- nie Frelinghuysen, should be considered the Consistory." The next day a similar arrange- ment settled the same trouble in Readington ; and the flames lit thirty years earlier against the father were at last quenched by the ministry of the son.
The. "Kerk op der Millstone," as the Har-
lingen church was then called, now began a new season of prosperity, and a year later, in 1752, built a new church near the present site, Dominie John dedicating it and preaching from the texts : I Kings, 8:29, and Psalm, 27 :4, and about a year after that, June 7, 1753, the five churches served by Dominies Leydt and Fre- linghuysen, contained all of the flocks, so long and faithfully served by the latter's father, were united into one corporation in a common charter granted them by Governor Jonathan Belcher.
In 1751 and 1752 John Frelinghuysen was a member of the committee which had the carry- ing out of the classical sentence on tlie wretch- ed Arondeus, and he took an active part for peace in the troubles with Pieter De Windt in Bergen and Staten Island. In the following year, 1753, with his brother, Theodore, he was instrumental in settling the latter case by hav- ing William Jackson, one of his own pupils, called to Bergen, and in straightening out the troubles over the call of the Rev. Thomas Romeyn to Jamaica and Oyster Bay. His labors on earth, however, were not to be con- tinued, and after the short ministry of four years and one month, he died in his twenty- eighth year. In 1826 his remains, with those of his nephew, Theodore Frelinghuysen Romeyn, were removed from their original resting place and put with those of another pastor, and the congregation of Raritan erected to the three a monument, known as "the minister's tomb," on which their tribute to Dominie John Fre- linghuysen is "Amiable in disposition, pious in character, zealous in the work of his Master, successful in gaining friends and winning souls, much beloved, much lamented."
The Rev. John Frelinghuysen married, about 1749, just before he returned to America, Dinah, the only daughter surviving childhood of Louis Van Bergh, a merchant of Amster- dam. She was born February 10, 1725; died in New Brunswick, March 26, 1807. She ac- companied her husband to this country, and about one or two years after his death mar- ried (second) his pupil, Jacob Rutzen Harden- bergh, whom she survived. She bore her first husband two children : Eva, who married Cas- par Van Nostrand, and removed to Ulster county, New York, where her descendants are now numerous; and Frederick, from whom all bearing the name of Frelinghuysen have descended.
(III) Brigadier-General Frederick, only son of the Rev. John Frelinghuysen, was born April 13, 1753, in the parsonage at Three Mile
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Run, and died on his birthday, 1804. It was the constant and earnest desire of his mother, wilo was "a very remarkable and highly gifted Christian woman," that like his father and grandfather, he should become a minister of the Gospel. In this she was cordially second- ed by Dr. Hardenbergh, her second husband, and his early education was given him with this aim in view; but in vain. Young Frederick felt that he was not called to the sacred office. and although he complied with his mother's wishes so far as to spend six months studying theology, his disinclination grew, and he turned his face toward another field in which he and his descendants have made a noble rec- ord as his ancestors had done in the church. In 1766 he entered the College of New Jersey and graduated in 1770, having among his class- mates John Taylor and the Rev. Caleb Wallace, chief judge of the Kentucky supreme court. Among his fellow students were Nathaniel Ramsey, Samuel Witham Stockton, Ephraim Bevard, Pierpont Edwards, William Churchill Houston, John Beatty, William Channing, Samuel Stanhope Smith, Gunning Bedford, James Madison, William Bradford, Aaron Burr, David Bard, Henry Lee and Aaron Ogden. After his graduation he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1774. The following year, 1775, when he was twenty- two years old, he was elected to the provincial congress of New Jersey, and at the outbreak of hostilities became a member of the import- ant committee of safety. For more than a year previous to 1775, the whole country had been not only in open rebellion against the King, but its inhabitants had actually made war upon their fellow subjects, who unconscious of op- pression had preserved their loyalty. The more daring and ambitious spirits had not only fore- seen that the continuance of political connec- tion was not much longer possible, but had successfully sought to inspire the people with the desire for independence; though many from various causes such as timidity, selfish policy and influence of family relations were disposed to postpone the event. The climax which demonstrated the real change in public opinion was the reception given to Thomas Paine's pamphlet, "Common Sense," which in a clear, perspicuous and popular style pro- nounced continued connection with England unsafe, impractical and illogical. Congress took its complexion from the peoples' temper, became more vigorously active against the dis- affected, granted letters of marque and reprisal, opened its ports to all nations, and finally, May
15, 1776, declared it necessary that the exer- cise of all authority under the crown be sup- pressed and the government exercised by the people of the colony for themselves, recom- mending each colony "to adopt such govern- ment as shall, in the opinion of the representa- tives of the people, best conduce to the happi- ness and safety of their constituents in partic- ular, and America in general."
Frederick Frelinghuysen was re-elected a member of the provincial congress of New Jersey, on the fourth Monday in May, 1776, which met in consequence of the above order, June 10, 1776, at Burlington, and organized. with Samuel Tucker, president, and William Patterson, secretary. On May 21, by a vote of 54 to 3, the convention resolved to form the government recommended, on the 24th appoint- ed a committee which reported two days later a draft constitution which was confirmed July 2, 1776. The last clause in this constitution was a provisional one, annulling the charter should reconciliation with Great Britain be hereafter effected. The constitution also re- tained the use of the word colony throughout. On July 18, the congress assumed the title of the "Convention of the State of New Jersey," and substituted the word "state for colony throughout." The provisional clause, however, remained and in the contest which ensued over it Frelinghuysen took an active part. He moved to defer the printing of the constitution for a few days that the clause might receive full consideration, and his arguments were so strong that had the house been full when the vote was taken he would have been successful, the adoption of the constitution would have been delayed, and the character of an independ- ent state at once fearlessly assumed. Out of sixty-five members, however, only twenty-five were present and the vote negatived his pro- posal 16 to 9.
In 1778 he was elected on a joint ballot of the legislature to represent New Jersey in the continental congress, but resigned his seat the next year in the following letter to the speaker of the New Jersey assembly, in which he states his reasons :
Sir: Agreeable to the appointment of the legis- lature, I repaired to Philadelphia in the month of January last, and have since that time attended Congress until the public business intrusted to my care in the county of Somerset rendered my absence unavoidable. It is needless for me to remind the honorable legislature, that I did with great reluct- ance accept of the appointment of a delegate for this state Congress. I was then sufficiently sensible that the trust was too important for my years and
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ablllties. I am now fully convinced that I should do injustice to my country did I not decline that service.
In doing this I am conscious to myself that I am merely actuated by motives for the publlc good, well knowing that whatever may be my abilitles, they will be useless to the state in the supreme council of the nation, and that the other appoint- ment with which the legislature of New Jersey has been pleased to honor me in the county of Somerset, is more than sufficient to employ my whole atten- tion.
I might add some other circumstances which render my situatlon here peculiarly disagreeable, but I fear the evils which might arise from opening myself on this subject, would more than counter- balance any good it might probably answer. I trust, however, the representatives from New Jer- sey will not think it impertinent in one who has faithfully endeavored to serve his country to declare to them that the interests of America call on them for extraordinary vigilance.
I shall say nothing respecting the amazing ex- pense of attending at Congress, and my inability to support it; I am determined not to complain until the last farthing of my little fortune is spent in the service of my country, and then perhaps I shall have the consolation to see poverty esteemed as the characteristic of an honest man.
I conclude with observing, I am particularly moved to wish for a release from the appointment, as It has been hinted to me that my colleague, Mr. Fell, is exceedingly uneasy that he is so often left alone to manage the weighty affairs of state, and that he had even expressed himself with warmth and temper on the subject in his letters to the legisla- ture. I shall not say that I am ready at all times to give an account of my conduct to those who appointed me.
I trust the legislature will take into consideration and gratify my request, of being excused from further attendance at Congress.
I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, FRED. FRELINGHUYSEN." The Hon. Caleb Camp, Esq.
This resignation was accepted, but at a later period his name again appears on the rolls as delegate from New Jersey, from 1782 to 1783, and ten years later, in 1795, after repeatedly receiving testimonials of public confidence by appointment to various state and county offices he was chosen to a seat in the United States senate, which domestic bereavement and family claims forced him to resign in 1796.
February 15, 1776, Frelinghuysen was ap- pointed major in Colonel Stewart's battalion of minute-men; but he resigned this com- mission two weeks later on being appointed captain of the eastern company of state troops, one of the detachments of artillery authorized by the colonial legislature and recruited by himself. After finishing his work in the con- stitutional convention, with his command he joined Washington in his retreat across New Jersey and took part in the crossing of the
Delaware and the battle of Trenton. A British sword, surrendered to him in that engagement, is now in the possession of his great-grandson, Mr. Frederick Frelinghuysen, of Newark. It is also a tradition in the family that it was a shot from the Captain's pistol which mortally wounded Colonel Rahl, the commander of the Hessian forces. In the following year, Febru- ary 28, 1777, Captain Frelinghuysen was pro- moted to colonel of the First Battalion, Somer- set militia, and placed with the command under Major-General Dickinson. After the winter at Valley Forge and the evacuation of Phila- delphia, Colonel Frelinghuysen's regiment took part in the chasing of Clinton's forces across the Jerseys and was present at the battle of Monmouth Court House, June 28, 1776. In a letter from a gentleman accompanying the patriots, and dated "English-Town, June 29, 1778," is related the following incident of the regiment : "At the drawbridge near Borden- town, when General Dickinson with great pro- priety had ordered some lines to be thrown up, they (the patriots) appeared anxiously to de- sire the arrival of the enemy. The continental troops and great part of the militia had, how- ever, been withdrawn, except those of Colonels Phillips and Shreve, who were previously de- tached to guard a ford one mile further up the creek, and only the three regiments of Colonels Frelinghuysen, Van Dike and Webster remain- ed, when a party of the enemy appeared, and with great zeal began to repair the bridge, which had been cut down .. Upon the very news of their approach, the troops rushed down with the greatest impetuosity, and a small party from one of the regiments which happened to be considerably advanced, caused them to re -- tire, after having killed four and wounded several others. In the morning the lines were again manned, but the enemy thought proper to change their route. This conduct of the militia saved, in my opinion, Trenton and the country adjacent from rapine and desolation." Colonel Frelinghuysen now resigned his com- mission in order to accept his election to the continental congress, but in 1780, after his resignation, he rejoined the army and took part in the skirmishes at Springfield and Eliza- beth.
In 1794, during his term as United States senator, the "Whiskey insurrection" arose in western Pennsylvania and President Washing- ton summoned troops from Virginia, Mary- land, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to quell the rebellion, and Senator Frelinghuysen, who had been in 1790 appointed brigadier-general,
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U. S. A., and served in the campaign against the western Indians, served also as second in command under Governor Howell. February 22, 1800, he delivered the oration in New Brunswick on the death of Washington, and the copies of this speech which are still extant "reveal an eloquence glowing with the ardor to be expected from the man and the times he had been through." For the remainder of his life he gave his time to professional and family duties and died "beloved by his country and his friends, and left for his children the rich legacy of a life unsullied by a stain, and that had abounded in benevolence and usefulness."
General Frelinghuysen married (first) Ger- trude Schenck, who died March, 1794, leaving five children. He then married Ann Yard, who bore him two girls and survived him many years.
General John Frelinghuysen, the oldest son, born March 21, 1776; died April 10, 1883; graduated from Rutgers College in 1792 and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He prac- ticed law in Somerville and Millstone, was representative from Somerset county 1809 to 1816, and surrogate from 1818 to 1832. He married (first) Louise, daughter of the Hon. Archibald Mercer, who bore him besides a son that died young, Mary Ann, wife of Henry Vanderveer, M. D .; Frederick, and Gertrude, who married David Magee. November 13, 18II, General John Frelinghuysen married Elizabeth Mercereau, daughter Michael Van Vechten, born December 1I, 1790; died June 4, 1867. Children: Theodore, who died un- married; Elizabeth La Grange, wife of Henry B. Kennedy ; Frederick John, whose son is now state senator for New Jersey ; Louisa Mercer, who married Talbot W. Chambers; Sarah, Catherine, Sophia.
The Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the sec- ond son, born Millstone, March 28, 1787 ; died New Brunswick, April 12, 1861. He graduated at Princeton in 1804, was admitted to the bar in 1808, raised and commanded a company of volunteers in the war of 1812, and from 1817 to 1829 was attorney-general of New Jersey. In 1828 he was elected to the United States senate, where he was prominent as a debater on the Whig side, taking an especially active part in the discussions over the rechartering of the United States bank and the withdraw- ing of the government deposits thereform, and over the tariff, but failing of re-election in 1835 he resumed the practice of his profession in Newark, of which city he was mayor in 1837 and 1838. From 1839, to 1850 he was
chancellor of the University of New York; was the Whig candidate for vice-president on tht ticket with Henry Clay, in 1844; and was president of Rutgers College from 1850 till his death. He married Charlotte, daughter of Archibald Mercer, M. D. (q. v.), but had no children.
Maria, oldest daughter of General Frederick Frelinghuysen, was born March, 1778; died March 13, 1832; married the Rev. John Cor- nell, of Flatbush, Long Island; and her sister, Catherine, became the wife of the Rev. Gideon F. Judd, D. D., of Catskill, New York. Eliza- beth, the eldest daughter by the second mar- riage, wedded James Bruyn Elmendorf, M. D .; while her younger sister died young.
(IV) Frederick, youngest son of General Fred- erick Frelinghuysen, was born at Millstone, No- vember 8, 1788, died there November 10, 1820. With his brother Theodore he was sent to school in New Brunswick, and later to the academy at Basking Ridge, where he was prepared to enter Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1806. He then entered the office of the Hon. Richard Stockton in Trenton, where he studied law until he was admitted to the bar in 1810. Making his home at Millstone he now began practicing in Somerset county, where he "rapidly acquired a lucrative practice and a brilliant reputation," which for a few years later became much enlarged by his appointment as prosecutor of the pleas for Somerset, Mid- dlesex and Hunterdon counties. Frederick Frelinghuysen is spoken of by those who knew him as a natural orator, perhaps much more so than either of his brothers, while his fervid imagination, buoyant temperament and lively sensibilities gave him a remarkable power over juries, and on two occasions when he delivered public orations he not only excited great inter- est but also high expectations which his early death brought to nought. The first of these speeches was before the Washington Benev- olent Association at New Brunswick, in 1812, and the other was at Somerville, before the Somerset County Bible Society, in 1820, about six or seven weeks before he was attacked by his last sickness. Four days after his death a special meeting of the members of the New Jersey bar was held at the state house in Tren- ton to draft resolutions on his decease, which was formally announced to them by the Hon. Lucius Horatio Stockton. In the minute there- upon adopted they say that the bar has been deprived of "the society of an honest and honorable man, peculiarly endeared to his coun- try by the characteristic traits that distinguish-
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