Matthew Leydt (1755–1783) was the first graduate of Queen's College (now

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) in

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. Matthew was the son of Syntje Slegt (1729–1763) (also spelled Tryntje Slecht or Sleight) and the Rev. Johannes Leydt (1718–1783), minister of the

Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family a ...

congregation at

and at Six Mile Run in Franklin Township (both from 1748 until his death), and Trustee of Queen's College

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as a

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when instruction began in 1771, he graduated at the age of 19 with a

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(A.B.) degree in 1774 —constituting the college's entire first graduating class. While at Queen's, Leydt studied under Frederick Frelinghuysen, the college's first tutorRutgers Through the Years Timeline
accessed 18 September 2006 and was instructed in theology by the Rev. Jacob Rutsen Hardenbergh, who became the college's first president in 1786. After graduation, Leydt was licensed to enter the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1778. He served at the Southampton Dutch Reformed Church in Neshaminy in Bucks County,

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, until his death on November 24, 1783 in North Hampton,

, at the age of twenty-eight.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leydt, Matthew 1755 births 1783 deaths People from Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni American people of Dutch descent Reformed Church in America ministers 18th-century American clergy