Froeligh, Solomon, Dd

Froeligh, Solomon, D.D.

a Reformed (Dutch) minister, was born at Red Hook, N.Y., in 1750. He studied theology with Dr. Theodorick Romeyn and Reverend J.H. Goetschius, and was licensed to preach in 1774. His first pastoral charge was on Long Island, in the churches of Jamaica, Newtown, Oyster Bay, and Success (1775-76). He was an ardent patriot during the Revolutionary War, and was compelled to flee from his congregations when the British occupied Long Island. From 1776 to 1780 he supplied the churches of Fishkill and Poughkeepsie, and at the end of the war was pastor at Hillsborough and Neshanic, N.J. In 1786 he removed to the united churches of Hackensack and Schraalenbergh; was appointed by the General Synod lector in theology in 1792, and in 1797 professor of theology, an office which he held until 1822. The churches over which he was last settled had long been in difficulties, which were not quieted by his coming among them and, in 1822, he seceded, with four other ministers in the North, Messrs. Brokaw, Palmer, Toll, and Wyckoff, who had previously been suspended for contumacy, and they organized what was called "The True Reformed Dutch Church." A small number of disaffected congregations and ministers afterwards joined them. In 1823 Dr. Froeligh was suspended by the General Synod from his professorship and from the ministry, for schism and contempt of ecclesiastical authority, and for promoting divisions in the Church. His own letters proved that he had for many years contemplated this secession. After this he continued to minister to the two churches which had seceded with him, as their pastor, until his decease, October 8, 1827. For a full history of these events, see Annals of the Classis of Bergen, by Benjamin C. Taylor, D.D., pages 188-233; also autobiographical notes incorporated in Rev. C. T. Demarest's Lamentation over Reverend Solomon Froeligh, D.D. Dr. Froeligh was neither very learned nor gifted with genius, but was a man of unquestioned ability and respectable attainments in the old theology. In his early ministry he was useful and blessed with considerable success. See also Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Church in America, s.v.; Minutes of General Synod, 1823; Memoir, by Peter Labagh, D.D., pages 129-135. (W.J.R.T.)