Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh Sr. (1736-1790)

Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh Sr. (1736-1790)
Research Tips

This white person has 1 related event 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-00353
Given Name
Jacob Rutsen
Family Name
Hardenbergh
Birth Date
February 22, 1736
Death Date
October 30, 1790
Sex
Male
Occupation
Religious
Teaching
Government
Biographical Description
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736-1790) was the first president of Queen's College (later Rutgers). He was one of the chief founders responsible for establishing the college in 1766 and was active in the college's affairs for two decades before he was appointed its first president by the trustees in 1786. Hardenbergh Hall, a dormitory located on George Street on the College Avenue campus, was named for him in 1956.

Hardenbergh was a Dutch Reformed minister who came from a prominent slaveholding family in Ulster County, New York, and took over the churches in the Raritan Valley after his mentor Johannes Frelinghuysen passed away. His parsonage was located in present-day Somerville (now the Old Dutch Parsonage historic house).

Slaveholding was an ordinary part of life for the Dutch landowners in New York and New Jersey in this era, and the Rev. Hardenbergh was used to exploiting enslaved labor in his home. His wife, the widow Dina Van Bergh, also inherited three slaves from her first marriage.

Unfortunately we do not know the names of the enslaved individuals who labored in Hardenbergh's parsonage in New Jersey. However, we do know that among the many Black people enslaved by Hardenbergh's family in Ulster County was a girl named Isabella Baumfree who would grow up to become a famous abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Isabella's enslaver was president Hardenbergh's brother Johannes Hardenbergh Jr. After Isabella escaped to freedom and became a preacher, she adopted the name Sojourner Truth. President Hardenbergh never met Sojourner Truth as she was born about seven years after his death, but he was likely well acquainted with her parents James and Betsey Baumfree who served the Hardenbergh family for decades.

The following is a description of the house (with slave quarters) where Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh grew up. The house was originally built by his great-grandfather Jacob Rutsen in 1700. This description is from the book The Hardenbergh Family: A Genealogical Compilation by Myrtle Hardenbergh Miller (New York: American Historical Co., 1958), page 58:

"a stone building sixty-two by twenty-five feet in dimensions. The main house had numerous rooms, fireplaces, and had handsome panelled woodwork and recesses for beds enclosed by panelled doors. At the southwest end and opening into the house were the slave quarters of stone fifteen by eighteen feet, on the same end in the cellar was a cell in which delinquent slaves were confined."

This house was originally called Rosendale (giving its name to the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, NY). After Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh's grandparents Johannes Hardenbergh (1670-1745) and Catherine (nee Rutsen) moved into the house, it came to be known as Hardenbergh Hall.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Rutgers University history
clergy
Places
Rosendale, New York
New Brunswick
Old Dutch Parsonage, Somerville (originally in Finderne aka Raritan)
Somerville (formerly Raritan)
Organization
Rutgers University
Relationship to Rutgers
President (1786-1790)
Trustee (Founding 1766-1790)
Secretary of the Board of Trustees (to 1782)
Namesake (Hardenbergh Hall named for him in 1956)
Enslaver of
Name Unrecorded - Male {Hardenbergh household}
Child of
Johannes Hardenbergh (1706-1786)
Parent of
Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh Jr. (1768-1841)
Sibling of
Johannes Hardenbergh Jr. (1729-1799)
Spouse of
Dina Van Bergh Frelinghuysen Hardenbergh (1725-1807)
References

Frusciano, Thomas J. “Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers’ Presidents, 1766-1991.” The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries 53, no. 1 (June 1991): 1–40. https://doi.org/10.14713/jrul.v53i1.1704.

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

Miller, Myrtle Hardenbergh. The Hardenbergh Family: A Genealogical Compilation. New York: American Historical Co., 1958. http://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill.

Van Rossum, Helene. “How Rutgers University Is Connected to Sojourner Truth: The Hardenbergh Family in Ulster County, NY.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), June 16, 2017. http://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2017/06/rutgers-connection-to-sojourner-truth-the-hardenbergh-family/.

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/Jacob_Rutsen_Hardenbergh
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6119206
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Sources

Author:
Linked Events

Additional Participant in:
Resource class
Agent