Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747)

Research Tips

This white person has 2 related events in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.

This person is related to Rutgers University history. See our research guide Rutgers University & Slavery for more information about finding university affiliates and archival sources in our database.

This person is mentioned in the Rutgers virtual tour: Around Campus with Scarlet and Black .
Identifier
NJS-PER-00351
Given Name
Theodorus Jacobus
Family Name
Frelinghuysen
Alternate Name
Mr. Freelandhouse
Birth Date
1691
Death Date
1747
Sex
Male
Occupation
Religious
Biographical Description
The Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747) was a Dutch Reformed minister who immigrated to New Jersey and settled in the Raritan Valley in 1720. He is best known for bringing religious fervor to the Raritan Valley during the First Great Awakening. He pastored several churches in the Raritan Valley, including congregations in Raritan, New Brunswick, Six-Mile Run, and Three-Mile Run (locations in present-day Middlesex County and Somerset County). Although he passed away nearly two decades before Queen's College (later Rutgers) was officially established, he is widely acknowledged as the progenitor of the school by Rutgers historians who credit him with originating the intellectual ideas that would eventually prompt his sons to seek a charter for a Dutch Reformed school in New Jersey.

Frelinghuysen enslaved several persons of African descent in his household and worked to convert them to Christianity. The most well-known of these enslaved people was Ukawsaw Gronniosaw. Frenlinghuysen manumitted Gronniosaw upon his death in 1747, and Gronniosaw went on to publish an autobiography in 1772 where he recounted his life in the Frelinghuysen household.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Rutgers University history
clergy
Places
Finderne, Bridgewater (formerly Raritan)
Three Mile Run, New Brunswick
Six Mile Run, Franklin
New Brunswick
Relationship to Rutgers
Namesake (Frelinghuysen Hall named in 1956)
Enslaver of
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (c. 1710-1775)
Parent of
7863
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen II (1723-1760)
Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1730-1753)
Ferdinandus Frelinghuysen (1732-1753)
Hendricus Frelinghuysen (1735-1757)
Margaret Frelinghuysen (1737-1757)
Anna Frelinghuysen Jackson (1738-1810)
Spouse of
Eva Terhune Frelinghuysen (d. c. 1750)
References

Demarest, William H. S. A History of Rutgers College, 1766-1924. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers College, 1924. https://archive.org/details/historyofrutgers00dema.

Bayker, Jesse, Christopher Blakley, and Kendra Boyd. "His Name Was Will: Remembering Enslaved Individuals in Rutgers History." In Scarlet and Black: Vol. 1, Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History, edited by Marisa Fuentes and Deborah Gray White, 58–81. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1k3s9r0.7.

Carretta, Vincent. “Gronniosaw, Ukawsaw [Pseud. James Albert] (1710x14–1775), Freed Slave and Autobiographer.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edition May 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.34427.

Hanley, Ryan. “Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw.”Slavery & Abolition 36, no. 2 (April 3, 2015): 360–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2014.920973.

Van Rossum, Helene. “Updates about Ukawsaw Gronniosaw Part 1: The Van Horne Plantation.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), August 23, 2023. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2023/08/updates-about-ukawsaw-gronniosaw-part-1-the-van-horne-plantation/.

Van Rossum, Helene. “Updates about Ukawsaw Gronniosaw Part 2: Frelinghuysen’s Convert.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), September 8, 2023. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2023/09/updates-about-ukawsaw-gronniosaw-part-2-frelinghuysens-convert/.

Congress, Nita, ed. Rutgers: A 250th Anniversary Portrait. Third Millennium Publishing, 2015.

This person is represented on the following page(s):
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodorus_Jacobus_Frelinghuysen
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7782168
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Sources

Mentioned in:
Linked Events

Additional Participant in:
Resource class
Agent