Protestant clergyman, born in Lingen, NW Germany. He received a classical education and was ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1717. Sent to America in 1719 as a missionary, he established several churches in the Raritan Valley of New Jersey, and is considered a leading force in the establishment of the Dutch Reformed faith in the New World. All five of his sons became ministers.
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691 – c.
Biography
He was born in 1691 in Lingen, East Friesland, now a part of Germany, to Johannes Henrich Frelinghaus, a Minister.
Frelinghuysen graduated from the University of Lingen and was ordained as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1715. In January 1720, he and Jacobus Schuurman, a friend, emigrated to the Province of New Jersey, a British colonies in North America. Frelinghuysen served as minister to several of the Reformed Dutch Churches (congregations at Raritan, New Brunswick, Six-Mile Run, Three-Mile Run, and North Branch) in the Raritan River valley of New Jersey which he served until his death in 1747 or 1748.
The Encyclopedia of New Jersey states:
Loyal to the Heidelberg Catechism, he emphasized pietism, conversion, repentance, strict moral standards, private devotions, excommunication, and church discipline.
He died in 1747 or 1748 in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey and was buried at Elm Ridge Cemetery, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Quote
"You have lived twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, some longer, and walked in the way that seems right in your eyes.Genealogy
Frelinghuysen married Eva Terhune and had the following children: Theodorus Jacobus II (1724-1761) who was selected to present a petition "to plant a university or seminary for young men destined for study in the learned languages and liberal arts, and who are to be instructed in the philosophical sciences." , John who was the father of Frederick Frelinghuysen (1753–1804), Jacobus (c1730-1753), Ferdinandus (c1732-1753), Henricus (c1735-1757), Margaret, Anna (1738-1810).
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