CHAPTER II.

HIS YOUTH AND EDUCATION.

1787-1808.

Birthplace.-School at New Brunswick.-Basking Ridge.-Princeton.-Letter of the Hon. Mr. Ingersoll.-Student at Law in Millstone.-Letter of the Rev. Dr. I. N. Wyckoff.-In the Office of the Hon. Richard Stockton.-Admission to the Bar.

THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN was born in Franklin Township, Somerset County, N. J., on the 28th of March, 1787. The family homestead at Millstone, where he was brought up, and which he subsequently purchased from the estate of his younger brother, continued in his possession until the year 1840, when it passed into other hands, and shortly afterward was entirely destroyed by fire. The engraving on the opposite page presents a correct view of the spacious and convenient mansion as it appeared twenty-five years ago. Here he spent his early years, receiving such rudiments of learning as were afforded at a small neighborhood school on the banks of the Millstone. Afterward, about the year 1798, he, in company with his brother Frederick, was sent to New Brunswick for the purpose of attending the grammar-school in connection with Queen's College, at that time under the direction of the Rev. Jno. Lindsley, a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The school was held in the old College building, erected on the ground where the Second Presbyterian Church now stands. Dr. Ephraim Smith, the late Col. James Neilson, and

other gentlemen of social distinction, were at this time fellow-students of the Frelinghuysens, although in a more advanced class. In 1800 Mr. Lindsley relinquished his rectorship of the grammar-school, and the boys returned to their father's house at Millstone.

At this time an event occurred which Mr. Frelinghuysen considered one of the most important and decisive in his whole life. Being rather indisposed to close mental application, he requested his father to forego his purpose of giving him a liberal education, and allow him to remain upon the homestead and become a farmer. His father yielded to his earnest wish, and the point seemed settled. But some time afterward, when the general was called away to the seat of government on public business, his wife took the matter in hand, packed Theodore's trunk, and sent him off to a classical school. He was greatly vexed at this step, which seemed to him to be only an instance of the harshness and oppression usually attributed to stepmothers. But in after years he changed his view entirely. He declared that to her decisive action he owed all his subsequent success in life; nor was he ever weary of recounting his obligations in this and other matters to his father's second wife. That lady was a signal blessing to Theodore and Frederick. She took particular pains in forming their principles, and in inculcating the graceful and high-bred courtesy for which they were distinguished.

The school to which, by the wise foresight of Mrs. Frelinghuysen, Theodore was sent in order to be prepared for college, was the classical academy at Bask ing Ridge, a village at the northern extremity of the

county. This institution had been founded the previous year by the Rev. ROBERT FINLEY, D.D., whose name has attained a widespread and enduring celebrity as the founder of the American Colonization Society. From the interesting and instructive memoir of his life prepared by the late Rev. Isaac V. Brown (2d edition, Philad., 1857), it appears that this institution was really worthy of the high reputation which it enjoyed for twenty years under the care of Dr. Finley, and afterward, for a shorter period, while conducted by his successor in the pastoral office at the Ridge, the late Rev. WILLIAM CRAIG BROWNLEE, D.D. Dr. Finley was an accomplished scholar, a thorough disciplinarian, a skillful teacher, and particularly distinguished for his ability to awaken the interest of his pupils in what they were studying. He had a natural fondness for teaching, and gave his whole mind to the work. His influence with the scholars was increased by his sacred profession, and the uncommon power and unction which marked his efforts in the pulpit. The academy soon obtained an honorable name, and attracted more applicants for admission than he was willing to receive. Such families as the Bayards, Lindsleys, Southards, Kirkpatricks, and others, were glad to secure its advantages for their children.

The Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick, of Ringoes, N. J., states, in a letter to the author, that he and the late Hon. Saml. L. Southard (afterward Mr. F.'s colleague in the Senate) commenced the study of Latin with Dr. Finley in August, 1799. In the spring of the next year they were joined by Philip Lindsley (afterward President of the University of Nashville, Tenn.), and by Theo.