Old Dutch Parsonage, Somerville (originally in Finderne aka Raritan)
- Identifier
- NJS-PLC-00019
- Place Type
- Domicile
- Description
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The Old Dutch Parsonage is an 18th-century historic house that was built in the area now known as Finderne in Bridgewater Township (in the colonial era, this area was known as Raritan, not to be confused with the present-day borough of Raritan). The parsonage originally stood near the place where the railroad now crosses Finderne Avenue. In the early 20th century, to make way for the railroad and preserve the historic house, the Old Dutch Parsonage was moved west from its original location. It is now located near the Wallace House on Somerset Street in nearby Somerville. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The house was built in 1751 for the Dutch Reformed minister, the Rev. Johannes (John) Frelinghuysen, who pastored three congregations in the area. Frelinghuysen is considered an important figure in the developments that led to the founding of Queen's College (now Rutgers University), and although he died before the college officially received its charter, he is considered a progenitor of the college because he began educating future Dutch Reformed ministers in his home. It was here at the Old Dutch Parsonage that Frelinghuysen delivered theological instruction, most notably educating Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh who would go on to become the first president of Queen's College. After the Rev. Johannes Frelinghuysen died in 1754, Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh took over his churches, married Frelinghuysen's widow Dina Van Bergh, and moved into the Old Dutch Parsonage as his residence.
An essay about the Old Dutch Parsonage by Caroline J. Otis in the July 1913 issue of the Somerset County Historical Quarterly described the house this way:
"A very substantial 'Dominie's House' was this, with its firm stone foundation, strong brick walls and great chimneys. The slave-quarters were in the cellar, where two wide fire-places and the large oven would seem to indicate that the life of a pioneer missionary in the wilds of America was not all privation and discomfort."
The house is a historical site of enslavement. Various letters sent by Dina Van Bergh and Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh in the mid-18th century make mention of Black workers, but the names of the enslaved people who labored in their household are not known.
One very famous Black man who may have spent time at the Old Dutch Parsonage was Ukawsaw Gronniosaw who published his autobiography in England in 1772. His narrative was the first such book to be published by an author of African descent in England, and it traced his life experiences from Africa (where he was captured and enslaved) to New Jersey and then to Europe. In New Jersey, Gronniosaw was bought by the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747), who was the father of the aforementioned Johannes Frelinghuysen. Gronniosaw was manumitted by the elder Frelinghuysen on his deathbed, but Gronniosaw continued working for several of Frelinghuysen's sons in the 1750s. It is not known exactly where he lived after the death of the elder Rev. Frelinghuysen, but there is a possibility that he would have spent some time working at Johannes Frelinghuysen's home, i.e. at the Old Dutch Parsonage.
Note that the coordinates for the Old Dutch Parsonage in the New Jersey Slavery Records database (and the associated map) represent the approximate ORIGINAL location of the dwelling, rather than its present-day location. The coordinates for the approximate original location are: 40.559784, -74.580385. The present-day location coordinates are: 40.569661, -74.622081. - Locality
- Somerville
- County (Modern)
- Somerset County
- State or Province
- New Jersey
- Country
- United States of America
- Latitude
- 40.559784
- Longitude
- -74.580385
- References
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Old Dutch Parsonage documentation submitted for the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. NPGallery, ID 71000514. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/d2d65a98-0966-47cc-9ab6-e3d53197eac6.
Caroline J. Otis, "The 'Old Dutch Parsonage' at Somerville," Somerset County Historical Quarterly, Vol. 2, no. 3, July 1913, p. 174. See also an editorial update in "The Old Parsonage House Removed," in Vol. 2, no. 4, October 1913, p. 316. https://archive.org/details/somersetcountyhi02hone/page/n189/mode/1up.
Van Rossum, Helene. “The Terrible Fate of the Frelinghuysen Brothers, Part 1: The Raritan Valley.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), October 20, 2023. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2023/10/the-terrible-fate-of-the-frelinghuysen-brothers-part-1-the-raritan-valley/.
- Keywords
- National Register of Historic Places
- Image Rights
- The Old Dutch Parsonage in Somerville, New Jersey. Photograph by Zeete, 2017. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Source: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Dutch_Parsonage,_Somerville,_NJ_-_2017.jpg
- Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
- Linked Places
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Persons of African descent linked to Old Dutch Parsonage, Somerville (originally in Finderne aka Raritan):
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