The Soul's Covenanting With God - Theodorus J. Frelinghuysen
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (born as Theodor Jakob Frelinghaus, c. 1691 – c. 1747) was a German-American Dutch Reformed minister, theologian and the progenitor of the Frelinghuysen family in the United States of America. Frelinghuysen is most remembered for his religious contributions in the Raritan Valley during the beginnings of the First Great Awakening. Several of his descendants became influential theologians and politicians throughout American history.
Birth and emigration
The Soul's Covenanting With God - Theodorus J. Frelinghuysen
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He was born in Lingen, a German-speaking city which then was part of the Union of Utrecht, to Johann Henrich Frelinghaus, a Dutch-Reformed minister; and to Anna Margaretha Brüggemann Frelinghaus (1657–1728). Frelinghuysen was ordained as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1715 and graduated from the University of Lingen in 1717. For fourteen months he was a minister in Loegumer Voorwerk, in East Friesland, and then for a short time he was co-rector of the Latin school in Enkhuizen, in the Netherlands. In June 1719 he accepted a call from Raritan, in the Province of New Jersey, a British colony in North America, and after a re-ordination for the Dutch Reformed Church by the Classis of Amsterdam, he arrived in America in January 1720.[1]
Family
He married Eva Terhune and had seven children, among them the Reverend Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen II and the Reverend John Frelinghuysen. All five sons became ministers and both daughters married ministers.[citation needed]
The Nigerian-born author James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, who was enslaved in the 1740s, reported that he was bought for £50 in New York by "Mr. Freelandhouse, a very gracious, good Minister." Freelandhouse is presumed to be Frelinghuysen.[2] Gronniosaw remained enslaved in Frelinghuysen's household until the latter's death.[3]
Ministry
Frelinghuysen served as minister to several of the Dutch Reformed Churches (congregations at Raritan, New Brunswick,
