Ronde, Lambertus De

Ronde, Lambertus De, a minister of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America, was colleague with Johannes Ritzema in the Collegiate (Dutch) Church of New York, and successor to the venerable Gualterus du Bois from 1751 to 1784. With his associate Ritzema he was thoroughly educated in one of the universities of Holland, and brought to his pulpit ample preparations. When driven from New York during the Revolutionary war, he supplied the Church of Schaghticoke, near Albany, where he resided during the rest of his life, being too old to resume his labors. He preached only in the Dutch language, and was the leading spirit in opposition to the introduction of English preaching, and in the lawsuit which resulted in favor of the consistory and against "the Dutch party," who had to pay in costs £300. Notwithstanding all this, his character was always venerated, and he died in a good old age at Schaghticoke, his place of voluntary exile, in 1795. The consistory of the Church in New York gave him an annuity of £200 for life after he left their active service, and the same was given to his aged colleague Ritzema, who died at Kinderhook, N.Y. Mr. de Ronde was a man of respectable attainments and abilities as a preacher, but was not so eminent for these things as he was for his part in the ecclesiastical controversies in that transition period of the Dutch Church. See De Witt, Hist. Discourse, p. 70; Gunn, Life of Livingston, p. 88, 164; Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Ch. p. 70. (W.J.R.T.)