Author: Freneau, Philip Morin
Biography:
Freneau, Philip Morin (1750-1832: WBIS)
Immortalized by Washington's phrase for him, "that rascal Freneau," he was born in New York City to Pierre and Agnes (Watson) Freneau. His father was a prosperous wine factor, his mother the daughter of a planter in New Jersey. Philip grew up in Mount Pleasant NJ and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1771. His first notable composition was a commencement poem written collaboratively with Hugh Henry Brackenridge (q.v.). But the death of Pierre Freneau left the family in financial difficulty and Philip had to earn a living--initially, by teaching. The Revolution occasioned the pamphleteering and satirical verse that made his name. He also spent two years in the West Indies as a private secretary, joined the New Jersey militia, was captured as a privateer and imprisoned by the British, wrote for a Philadelphia paper, worked as a postal clerk, and captained his own ship in the Caribbean for six years. Then in 1790 he returned to New Jersey and married Eleanor Forman, with whom he had four children. In 1791 he went back to journalism as the editor of the National Gazette (which brought on him Washington's fury) and, after it folded, in other less successful enterprises. In the last years of his life, estranged from his wife, he divided his time between a small trading schooner and a farm near Freehold NJ, where he died after losing his way in a blizzard. (ANBO 12 Dec. 2018; ODNB 12 Dec. 2018)
Other Names:
- Freneau
- Philip Freneau