Settlement and township formation
Freehold Township was established on October 31, 1693, as one of Monmouth County's three original townships. The municipal history describes Scottish settlers arriving in the area in 1685. Farms, households and churches formed the foundation of the community before the later growth of the downtown county seat. The 1693 date marks the township's formation; it does not represent the first human presence in the region.
The Revolutionary landscape
The Freehold area was central to the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. The Monmouth County Historical Association identifies the Covenhoven House with British General Henry Clinton's stay shortly before the battle. Its historic-house collection also includes the Holmes-Hendrickson House in Freehold. These buildings help explain the domestic and agricultural setting in which the military events unfolded.
Two Freehold municipalities
Over time, the courthouse village and the surrounding countryside developed different municipal identities. Freehold Borough became a separate borough in 1919. The township's older formation date and the borough's later incorporation therefore belong to different jurisdictions. Reading both histories gives a fuller picture of an area shaped by farming, county government and the Revolutionary War.