"Hendrick Fisher" by Rev. T. E. Davis

Hendrick Fisher, the patriot and the hero; the fearless and untiring foe of tyranny; the faithful and heroic friend of freedom.

Hendrick Fisher, one of the immortal few whose name should never perish from American history or cease to be an inspiration to American patriotism.

And yet "'tis true, and pity 'tis 'tis true" that so few American citizens know Hendrick Fisher, his name, his character, his deeds.

No historian has given his life to the world. No encyclopedia contains a sketch of him. In none of our Legislative Halls can you find a single memorial of the man. Is it true that "Republics are ungrateful?"

Is it true that the generation of to-day have ceased to honor their noblest benefactors?

Amid that patriot band that fought for liberty in those "days that tried men's souls," Hendrick Fisher stands without a peer. The leader of New Jersey's loyal host. Modest, unassuming, unambitious, unselfish man, perhaps that is why his fame shines not from memorial tablet or historic page.

But my object is simply to give you the facts of his public life, and trust to your intelligence and wisdom to enthrone Hendrick Fisher in his rightful place among the great and the noble in New Jersey's early history.

Hendrick Fisher was not an American by birth. He came from the land of religious freedom and from the banks of the noble Rhine.

He was born in 1697 in the German province of the Lower Palatinate.

Here lived the best class of the German people. They were thrifty, industrious, intelligent and highly religious. Their religion was that of the Reformed rather than of the Lutheran Church. The Heidelberg Catechism, now the standard of doctrine in the Reformed Churches, was first prepared for the use of the schools in the Palatinate. The Christians in the Palatinate suffered most terribly from the persecutions of the Romish Church. Their land was often the battle ground of armies, and no country perhaps was ever more thoroughly devastated. The Christian people of those provinces were nearly all driven from their homes, their property destroyed, their towns and cities burned. Many of them fled to Holland, for here they could find freedom and the same religious faith.

From Holland many of these Germans came seeking homes and religious freedom in America. Many of Hendrick Fisher's descendants claim for him a Holland birth as they have received it from tradition, but without doubt their only authority is the fact that his family were exiles in Holland and from there came to America.

It was in 1703 when the Visscher family, as their name was originally spelled, came to this country. The boy Hendrick was six years old. His father, whose name was also Hendrick, bought a farm of 300 acres of William Dockwra on the south bank of the Raritan about one mile from Bound Brook. Dockwra was a Scotchman, but had been a merchant in London. He came to America in 1682 and some time after bought 900 acres of land on the Raritan river. On this tract he built a house in 1688 in which he lived until 1703, when he sold the 300 acres with the old homestead to the elder Hendrick Fisher. This house is still standing, at the good old age of 218 years, and is without doubt the oldest house in Somerset County.

In this house lived Hendrick Fisher, Sr., until his death, October 17, 1749. His property was left to the son who bore his name.

Of the early life of Hendrick Fisher very little is known. He was a farmer and a mechanic. But his patriotism, integrity and intelligence were too marked to allow him to remain in those quiet pursuits.

His fellow citizens saw in him noble qualities that entitled him to be a leader among men.

In 1740 he was elected as a member of the Colonial Assembly with John V. Middlewart from Somerset County. He had only been naturalized at the last session of the Assembly, and therefore according to law was ineligible to hold this office. In 1745 he was again elected by the voters of Somerset County, and the objection having passed away he took his seat as a member of the Assembly.

For thirty years after, Hendrick Fisher was re-elected to every Assembly until the colony became the State of New Jersey, holding the position until he was nearly eighty years of age, and longer than any other man from Somerset County, either under colonial or State government. But Hendrick Fisher was not only the trusted and faithful representative of his constituents, he was the leader in the Assembly and the most active and powerful spirit in that lower house.

No man had such control of that body or could so influence it in favor of right and in opposition to wrong.

And in the great onward movement leading toward State independence that put New Jersey in the very front rank of the colonies, and led her to assert her freedom two days before the national declaration of independence, you will find that the bold, undaunted, aggressive force lay in the mind and heart of the patriot, Hendrick Fisher.

To prove his zeal, his efficiency, his influence, I need only open to you the records of the Assembly and you will find I have not bestowed honor unworthily. Here and there I gather a fact from the long and noble record. To tell all, while it would be convincing to the mind, would surely be wearisome to the flesh.

A careful study of the records of the Assembly and Council convinces ine that no man was so frequently honored, no man so often entrusted with important duties, nor so often the chairman of leading committees.

If a message was to be sent to the Governor or to the Council, in nearly every case Hendrick Fisher was the chairman of such committee.

Changes or revision of existing statutes or the adoption of new laws were submitted to a committee of which Hendrick Fisher was a member.

If a petition was to be sent to his majesty, the King, or to his excellency, the Governor, the one man selected to prepare and send or carry such message, was the tried and the true Hendrick Fisher.

But I ask you to follow me carefully while I mention the particular instances. Those special events in his life will be divided into three classes, as they are connected with the colony, with the college and with the church.

I. Hendrick Fisher in the Colony of New Jersey.

Jan. 6, 1747, Hendrick Fisher was appointed chairman of a committee to confer with a committee from the Council, regarding a law to prevent the concealing of stray cattle.

Aug. 24, 1747, he was appointed chairman of a committee to confer with a committee from the Council, regarding ways and means for the suppression of riots and disorder in the colony.

Nov. 24, 1748, he was chairman of a committee to inspect and burn the cancelled bills of credit now in the hands of Andrew Johnson.

Nov. 30, 1748, with Mr. Stelle he presented to the Council from the lower house a bill entitled "An act to enable the inhabitants of the county of Middlesex to build a work house and a house of correction within the said county and to make rules and orders for the government of the same."

Oct. 17, 1749, with Mr. Leaming he was selected to prepare an answer to the Governor's message.

June 6, 1751, he was chairman of a committee to confer with the Governor and a committee of the Council in regard to an address to be sent to his majesty, King George II.

May 31, 1753, he was one of a committee from the Assembly to consider "the most effectual way to lay the calamitous situation of the province for want of paper money before his majesty in order to obtain his royal assent for a new emission of bills of credit in this colony."

In 1755, Governor Belcher appointed Hendrick Fisher and Jacob Spicer to supply the British army in the colony under the command of Col. Schuyler with necessaries to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds.

March 19, 1759, Governor Bernard nominated Hendrick Fisher for Judge of Pleas in Somerset County, the Council ratifying the nomination.

In 1762 he was instrumental in getting a bill passed giving authority to the managers of the bridge across the Bound Brook to raise by lottery a sum of money for rebuilding said bridge.

Sept. 21, 1762, he presented a bill to the Assembly entitled "an act to empower the trustees of the college of New Jersey to raise by lottery a sum of money for the use of the college." This bill passed both the House and the Council and four days after received the assent of the Governor.

May 23, 1765, he was one of a committee to consider the "calamitous situation of this province respecting debts and lawsuits, and to see whether anything can be done for the better ascertaining of the titles of land."

May 31, 1765, he was appointed by the house on a committee to consider the expediency and means of shortening the post roads of the province.

In March, 1765, the English Parliament passed the celebrated Stamp Act, the main feature of which was that all legal writing and printing should be on paper bearing an English stamp, for which the colonies were to pay a large sum. This caused great excitement in all the colonies. A Continental Congress was called.

This, the first Congress of all the Colonies, met in New York Oct. 7, 1765, Hendrick Fisher, Joseph Borden and Robert Ogden representing the colony of New Jersey. Of all the delegates none was more incensed at the action of Great Britain than Hendrick Fisher, and when the Declaration of Rights was adopted by the Congress, the names of Hendrick Fisher and Joseph Borden were affixed on behalf of New Jersey, while Robert Ogden of Elizabethtown, would not endorse by vote or signature this section. On Nov. 29, of this same year, this vote was unanimously passed in the Assembly of New Jersey: "Resolved, that the thanks of this house be given to Hendrick Fisher and Joseph Borden for their faithful and judicious discharge of the trust reposed in them." It had been the usage of the Council and Assembly to transact the business of their respective houses with closed doors. But on Oct. 12, 1769, a motion was made by Hendrick Fisher in these words: “ Mr. Speaker, although it has been a custom of long standing, for the House of Assembly of this colony to transact public business with the doors of the house shut, yet, as at this time particularly, a contrary practice will be more agreeable both to the custom of Parliament and the sentiments of the people of this province: I move that the doors of this House, agreeable to the practice of the House of Commons, be opened, that all persons may, if they think proper, be present at any public debate, under the same rules and regulations observed in the House of Commons." The question being put to the house, it was carried unanimously.

Nov. 25, 1769, Hendrick Fisher was selected as the chairman of a committee to settle the boundary lines between the colonies of New York and New Jersey, which in 1772, largely through Hendrick Fisher's influence was peacefully decided to the satisfaction of both parties.

In 1772 he secured the passage of an act for the raising of money to rebuild and keep in repair, the Queens Bridge over the Raritan River, at Bound Brook.

March 7, 1774, he was one of a committee to confer with a committee from the Council, regarding a bill compelling the Treasurers of the Colony of New Jersey to give security for the execution of their offices.

Feb. 8, 1774, a standing committee of Correspondence and Inquiry was appointed, consisting of nine members, of which Hendrick Fisher was chairman. The duty of this committee was "to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all acts and resolutions of the Parliament of Great Britain, or the proceedings of the administration that may have any relations to, or may affect the liberties and privileges of his majestie's subjects in the British Colonies in America, and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies respecting these important considerations." Jan. 16, 1775, ten members of the Assembly were appointed a committee on grievances. A meeting of this committee resulted in Hendrick Fisher being elected their chairman. Jan. 25, 1775, as chairman of such committee, he reported the following action: "Resolved, That an humble petition be presented to his most gracious majesty, praying a redress of grievances under which this and the neighboring colonies now labor." The House agreed to the resolution, and the committee were ordered to prepare and bring a petition accordingly. This petition containing the grievances of the colonies was probably prepared by Hendrick Fisher. These are some of the grievances mentioned:

• A standing army kept in the colonies without their consent.
• Assemblies frequently and injuriously dissolved.
• Commerce burdened with many useless and oppressive restrictions.
• Duties imposed by Acts of Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue.
• Trial by jury abolished.
• Enormous forfeitures incurred for slight offences.
• Vexatious informers exempted from paying damages to which they are justly liable.
• Colonies [colonists] tried in England for offences committed in America,
• Persons charged with offences in any place out of the Realm may be indicted and tried within the Realm for the same but deprived of a trial by their peers of the vicinage.

These grievances may all be found in the Declaration of Independence.

The news of the battle of Lexington reached New York on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock April 23.

From New York the news was sent to New Jersey and Philadelphia. At two o'clock Monday morning, April 24, the messenger rode into New Brunswick. Upon receipt of the alarming news Hendrick Fisher, the chairman of the committee of correspondence for the province, at once summoned the committee to meet in New Brunswick on Tuesday, 2d of May.

All the members were present. After serious consideration of the alarming conditions in Massachusetts the committee unanimously directed the chairman to call a Provincial Congress to meet at Trenton on Tuesday the 23d of May, and the several counties were requested to appoint deputies to attend this Congress.

Pursuant to this notice the Freeholders of Somerset county met at the court house at Millstone on the 11th day of May, and elected Hendrick Fisher chairman.

The following action was taken at this meeting: "Resolved, that reviewing the steps taken by the British Ministry to enslave the American colonies and the late alarming hostilities in Massachusetts under Gen. Gage, we redily consent to elect deputies for a Provincial Congress to meet at Trenton on Tuesday 23rd inst., agreeable to the advice and direction of the provincial committee of correspondence." Nine deputies were chosen by ballot of whom Hendrick Fisher was the first.

May 17, 1775, Hendrick Fisher was chairman of the committee to reply to Gov. Franklin's message regarding the recent action of the House of Commons

May 20, 1775, that reply was presented to the Assembly by the chairman in which in no uncertain language he maintained the rights of the colonists and their determination not to give up the rights of freemen. "Nor do we want any time to consider whether we shall submit to that which in our apprehension will reduce us and our constituents to a state little better than that of slavery."

Hendrick Fisher was not a rash, reckless patriot who under excitement and passionate impulse rushed into war without counting the cost. Probably no man was more anxious for a peaceful and honorable settlement of all the difficulties between Great Britain and the American Colonies. Hoping, praying, working for that result until patience ceased to be a virtue, until there was no hope of relief from the King or Parliament, then the grand old patriot became a hero in the struggle, and his determined, unconquerable spirit was the mighty factor for independence in the Colony. Thus Hendrick Fisher was forced to be the leader of the patriot host. It was after the "embattled farmers" at Concord had "fired the shot heard 'round the world," after hearing "the clanking of the British chains on the plains of Boston, "after Great Britain had given the Colonies a choice between slavery or rebellion, that Hendrick Fisher threw himself into the conflict for "Liberty or Death."

May 23, 1775, pursuant to the call of the Committee of Correspondence, the First Provincial Congress of New Jersey met at Trenton. Thirteen counties sent representatives (deputies). The first day was spent in examining and comparing the certificates of election of the members. The day following the Congress was formally organized by electing Hendrick Fisher president, and his opening address was a most forcible and eloquent portrayal of the grievances of the colonies. Jonathan D. Sergeant was elected secretary and William Paterson and Frederick Frelinghuysen assistant secretaries. Thus all the officers of the First Provincial Congress, with the exception of Samuel Tucker, vice president, of Hunterdon, were residents of Somerset county. The president of this Congress was ordered to wait upon the ministers of the Gospel in the town and request that one be present every morning at eight o'clock at the opening of the session, that the business might be preceded by prayer. This Congress remained in session eleven days. The most important business was in regard to raising troops for military service and the raising of money for that purpose.

Congress adjourned June 3, after selecting a committee of correspondence with power to convene the Congress when necessary. Of this committee Hendrick Fisher was chairman. At a meeting of Freeholders of Somerset county held June 28, 1775, a new committee of correspondence was chosen for the county, of which Hendrick Fisher was again chosen chairman. By his recommendation a committee of inspection was chosen for every township in the county, and instructed "to be diligent and active in the discharge of their duty in taking cognizance of every person of whatever rank or condition, who shall either by deed or word endeavor to destroy our unanimity in opposing the arbitrary and cruel measures of the British Ministry, and so deal with him or them, as to the particular committee of inspection where the offender resides, shall seem most conducive to prevent any injury to the glorious cause of American freedom."

In the alarming state of affairs after the news of the battle of Bunker Hill, the committee of correspondence felt justified in calling a second meeting of the Provincial Congress at Trenton, August 5, 1775, which was in session until August 17, its last act before adjournment being the selection of a provincial committee of safety, of which Hendrick Fisher was chairman. This committee had the full power of the Provincial Congress, except that of legislation, which power they are said to have exercised with an ability and integrity that has never been impeached.

The second Provincial Congress was held at Trenton on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 1775. Samuel Tucker was chosen president, and Hendrick Fisher, vice president. During this Congress Hendrick Fisher was very active as chairman of important committees. He was to reply to a letter from the committee of safety in New York regarding deserters. He was to inspect the minutes of the late Congress and committee of safety. He was to prepare an ordinance for regulating the militia of the colony and to reply to a communication from the Continental Congress regarding the two battalions of soldiers to be raised in the colony. During the session of this Congress, thirty thousand pounds proclamation money was ordered to be emitted in bills of credit for the use of this colony. Hendrick Fisher was chairman of the committee to prepare the ordinance relating to the same and to make provision for raising this fund. On the closing day of the Congress, Oct. 28, Hendrick Fisher was chosen as one of four commissioners for the eastern division of the colony with power to receive money from the treasurer of the colony and to expend it for the use of the colony in arming and equipping the troops and supplying them with provisions.

Nov. 28, 1775, he was appointed chairman of a committee to prepare a petition to be sent to the king of England beseeching him to prevent the further shedding of blood by British soldiers on American soil. Feb. 1, 1776, he was selected by the Provincial Congress to prepare an ordinance for appointing Barrack Masters in the Colony, and making provision for repairing barracks. In that same month he and John Schureman were appointed Barrack Masters for New Brunswick. It has been said that in the Provincial Congress it was Hendrick Fisher who made the motion that the New Jersey delegates to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia should be instructed to use their influence in favor of a declaration of independence.

And when the Declaration of American Independence became a reality, no man was more rejoiced than Hendrick Fisher. Securing a copy he rode swiftly home, and gathering his friends and neighbors around him, in Bound Brook, in front of the old historic Frelinghuysen hotel, he read aloud to his loyal constituents, that immortal declaration of freedom and equality.

So great was their joy and enthusiasm, that when he had finished, they took the old patriot and carried him on their shoulders through the town, while the old bell from Holland, in the Presbyterian church tower, and cannon on the hill, enlivened the occasion. After the Declaration of Independence we hear nothing more of Hendrick Fisher's public life. He was growing too old to take an active part in political affairs. And no doubt one great aim of his life had been accomplished in the independence of the colonies. He had served the colony faithfully. He had suffered much from his loyalty and patriotism. No man in New Jersey was more intensely hated by the loyal subjects of Great Britain. Every effort was used to capture him and deprive the colony of his great influence for liberty. He went constantly armed so as to be ready to meet any secret foe. And during a peculiarly exciting period when the British army was near, it is said that he spent his nights in a cave that he might not be captured by British soldiers. When Lord Howe, in 1776, offered full pardon to all who would give up their allegiance to the American cause, he made an exception of Hendrick Fisher and three others. Time and again bands of British soldiers had come from New Brunswick on their raids and destroyed and stolen much of his property. On that memorable Sunday, April 13, 1777, the date of the battle of Boundbrook, after the British victory, the royal army marched triumphantly back to New Brunswick by way of the road on the south side of the river Raritan. When they came to the home of Hendrick Fisher, they entered his house, robbing it of forty pounds in money, and many other valuables, and drove away with them over twenty head of cattle.

II. Hendrick Fisher and Queens College.

It will be necessary for me to carry you back for some years to learn the cause of the origin of Queens College.

The desire for education among the Dutch settlers of America, was only surpassed by their fidelity to the Church. As early as 1746, the Assembly of the Colony of New York took action towards the establishing of an institution of higher learning.

The Dutch Church of New York presented a petition to the Assembly asking liberty to have a professor of Divinity in the new college.

Oct. 31, 1754, the Governor of New York granted a charter for Kings College, but without including the Dutch Professor. Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of Albany, hearing of the condition of things, started on Jan. 1, 1755, to visit the principal Dutch Churches, to obtain signatures for the Dutch alone. He met some opposition, but also much success. Feb. 1755, Rev. Mr. Schenkle, a Dutch pastor in New York, and Professor of Divinity in Kings College, was deposed for heresy, and the resolution was passed that hereafter none but Episcopalians should hold that office. This made the Dutch more anxious for an independent institution, and on May 30, 1755, a meeting was called to consider the subject. As a result of this meeting, Rev. Mr. Frelinghuysen was commissioned to go to Holland to collect funds for the proposed college. Mr. Frelinghuysen did not start on this mission in four years. As to the success of his efforts I find no record, as he died on the homeward journey.

In 1761, the Coetus party, the American independent element in the Dutch Church, under the lead of the Rev. Mr. Verbryck, of Tappan, made application to the Governor of New Jersey for a charter for the erection of an institution in that province, as on account of the recent charter of Kings College they could not expect to succeed in New York. The Governor refused the request. They applied to a second and third governor, but without success, the reasons probably being the recent charter of the College of New Jersey, and no necessity for two similar institutions in the same colony. The charter was granted to the College of New Jersey, Oct. 22, 1746. It was opened at Elizabethtown in May, 1747, Rev. Jonathan Dickinson being appointed president. He died in October of the same year, and Rev. Aaron Burr,* of Newark, succeeded him. [*Father of Col. Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States.]

A new charter, more liberal in its provisions, was granted Sept. 14, 1748, by Gov. Belcher. It had been decided from the first that the college should be located near the center of the State.

Gov. Belcher had fixed on Princeton before granting the charter. The trustees met at Newark, Sept. 26, 1750, and voted that a proposal be made to the towns of New Brunswick and Princeton to try what sums of money they could raise for the building of the college, by the next meeting.

At the next meeting of the board of trustees, in May, 1751, they decided that New Brunswick be the place for the building of the college, provided that the inhabitants of the place agree with the trustees upon the following terms, viz.: that they secure to the college one thousand pounds proclamation money, ten acres of land contiguous to the college, and two hundred acres of woodland, the farthest part of it not to be more than three acres from the town. This would have given the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, to New Brunswick. But at a meeting of the board of trustees, Sept. 27, 1752, it was stated that New Brunswick had not complied with the proposed terms. The same offer was then made to the town of Princeton, and at the meeting, Jan. 24, 1753, it was voted to place the college at Princeton, all the conditions having been fulfilled by the inhabitants.

The Episcopalians and Presbyterians now both having institutions of higher learning, made the Dutch more anxious to stand on an equality with them in this respect. Renewed efforts were made which at last proved successful, for on Nov. 10, 1766, a charter for a college for the Dutch, was procured in the colony of New Jersey. Of the history of the college under this first charter, I have been able to find nothing reliable. At least two meetings of the trustees were held during the next two years. As in the cases of Kings College and the College of New Jersey, early instruction may have been at private houses. During this period Hendrick Fisher was president of the Board of Trustees, and probably was acting president of the college. This early institution evidently was not successful, for from the minutes of the Council of New Jersey this record is taken: "At a council held in Burlington, on Friday, Nov. 24, 1769, members present, His Excellency Gov. William Franklin, the Honorable Mr. Kemble Ogden, Lord Sterling, Read, J. Smith, S. Smith, Ladd and Chief Justice Smyth. His Excellency laid before the board the petition of Hendrick Fisher, Esq., president of the Board of Trustees of Queens College in this province, praying that an alteration may be made in the charter granted to the said trustees."

The Council having taken the same into consideration, advised his excellency to grant the prayer of the said petition so far as it related to the distinction of the residents and non-residents in the said charter mentioned.

On March 20, 1770, Governor William Franklin granted the charter. By this charter forty trustees were appointed, including, ex officio, the Governor of the Colony of New Jersey, the Chief Justice and the Attorney General of the Colony. Hendrick Fisher was selected again as the President of the Board of Trustees. According to the charter, the trustees were directed to meet at Hackensack, in May, 1770.

The location of the college was not determined by the charter. The choice seemed to be between Hackensack and New Brunswick, the former town being a strong favorite. The Dutch element there was much the strongest. Two Dutch churches were flourishing there, with only one in New Brunswick. The school at Hackensack was one of the largest and most successful in the colony. This was a strong argument for the location of the college at Hackensack.

But at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, in Hackensack, May 7, 1771, the location of the college was fixed at New Brunswick, because of the influence of Hendrick Fisher and the Rev. Dr. Hardenburg in getting the citizens to contribute large sums of money to the college. Nor did Hendrick Fisher's interest in the new institution end there. During the trying days of its infancy, with its discouragements arising from a lack of money and opposition, he was as a faithful father to a weak and helpless child, and largely through his instrumentality, within two and a half years after the location was fixed at New Brunswick, about twenty thousand dollars was raised in the colony alone for endowment fund.

III. Hendrick Fisher in the Church.

Hendrick Fisher was not only a patriot and a friend of learning, but a Christian-loyal to his God as well as to his country and his fellowmen; just as faithful in his religious as in his political life. At the age of twenty-four, in 1721, he united with the Dutch Church, of New Brunswick. The Presbyterian Church, of Bound Brook, was then in existence, but it was an English speaking church, and its doctrines and government different from those of the Reformed Church.

For fifty-eight years after uniting with this church, he was a faithful worker, and for the most of the time an officer and recognized leader in all the affairs of the local church.

The year after uniting with the church, he was elected deacon, holding the office for two terms, and then was elected elder, in which office he served almost continuously, by re-election, for forty years. He was nearly always chosen to represent his church in ecclesiastical councils, and there his ability and faithful services were highly appreciated.

He was a member of a committee on the adoption of a plan of union for the Holland Reformed Churches in America, in 1771, and to his wisdom and untiring efforts, in a great degree, were the Dutch churches indebted for that new era of reconciliation, and harmony, and work. From 1720 to 1747, Rev. Theo. J. Frelinghuysen was pastor of the five churches of Three Mile Run, New Brunswick, Raritan (now Somerville), Six Mile Run and North Branch. The territory embraced in this charge was nearly twenty miles long and ten or twelve wide, taking in nearly all of the present county of Somerset and part of Middlesex county. He had no assistant in his labors, nor could he readily secure temporary assistance from his ministerial brethren, for there were none nearer than Hackensack and New York, of his own denomination. He therefore adopted a novel, and as it proved to be, a very successful means of help in his arduous labors.

He appointed two of his most intelligent and pious elders in each congregation, and termed them "helpers." Hendrick Fisher was one of the "helpers," from the church of New Brunswick.

These men were ordained as lay preachers. Their duty was to conduct prayer meetings, catechise the people, have an oversight of the members of the church, teaching them, guiding them and encouraging them in their Christian life and duty. They were also empowered to hold public service in the absence of the pastor. It was in 1736 that Hendrick Fisher was set apart to this important work in the church, and in which he continued to perform faithful service until the time of his death. He was a zealous student of the Word of God, and became thoroughly versed in the terms of revealed theology.

Some of his sermons were published, and it is said they had great value for their true teachings of the doctrines of the Bible, and for the practical application of those doctrines to the individual life of the Christian.

Hendrick Fisher was a loyal, unwavering friend of his pastor. During the great opposition to Mr. Frelinghuysen, led by three prominent elders in the church, Hendrick Fisher was his true friend and counsellor, and when afterward Frelinghuysen was thoroughly vindicated of every charge, the wisdom and the piety of his faithful elder were seen and truly appreciated.

Hendrick Fisher was a man of peace, but with him it was not policy to "secure peace at all hazards," or to cry "peace, peace, when there was no peace." Right and justice, and loyalty to principle, were of more importance to him than the praise and fellowship of his fellowmen.

The leaders in the colony who were loyal to their mother country, or who could not use Hendrick Fisher for their own ambitious ends, and the leaders in the church whose hypocrisy and evil schemes he did not fear to unmask, all these were bitter enemies of Hendrick Fisher.

A century and a quarter nearly has passed away since Hendrick Fisher ended his civil and religious career. And to-day he stands in the very front rank of the patriots of the past, not a single stain on his private or public life, a patriot, a hero and a Christian, "one of the few immortal names that were not born to die."

Hendrick Fisher did not live to enjoy the blessings of peace in a free, united country. He did not live to see the rising and the passing away of the black cloud of war.

The year 1779 was a peculiarly dark and trying one for the young nation. A bankrupt treasury; a scattered army poorly fed and unpaid; some of the leading men turning back to the British fold; discouraged and disheartened were many of the loyal leaders, and so amidst the uncertainty and gloom Hendrick Fisher passed away from earth on the 16th day of August 1779. Perhaps it was better so. For at once his eyes were opened, he could see the future of his beloved land not trembling in the balance, but opening into true glory and prosperity. He needed not to wait for the fulfilment of his hopes. God showed him at once all the future. A great nation, a glorious country, the brightest, happiest and best in the earth, all his longing hopes, his faithful labors, his earnest prayers to the God of nations had not been in vain.

On the old farm near to the home of his boyhood, manhood and old age, near the banks of the old Raritan, is a family graveyard, and in that graveyard is a brown sandstone monument on which you can plainly read:

"In memory of Hendrick Fisher who departed this life Aug. 16, 1779, in the 82d year of his age.

My flesh shall slumber in the ground,
Till the last trumpet's joyful sound,
Then burst the chains with sweet surprise,
And in my Saviour's image rise."