Hendrick and Elizabeth Fisher lived in Franklin Township of Somerset County, New Jersey so close to South Bound Brook that they were often identified with that town. This area lies just west of New Brunswick. Bound Brook proper is north of the Raritan River and just upstream of Piscataway in Middlesex County.
 
Today the historic Hendrick Fisher house and cemetery lie west of South Bound Brook's Main Street. East of Main Street is the historic Abraham Staats house. Each of these historic houses figures prominently in the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Bound Brook of the Revolutionary War.
 
In 1721 Hendrick Fisher united with the Dutch Reformed Church under Theodorus Frelinghuysen. This minister served several Dutch congregations from Somerville to New Brunswick. Frelinghuysen was born in East Friesland, now part of Germany, and was steeped in Pietism, a movement which had begun in Germany. Both the Fisher and Bries families also had German origins. As a Pietist, Frelinghuysen believed in activism. In the Pietist tradition, he encouraged good works and the establishment of charitable institutions and colleges. He also encouraged citizen involvement in public service with the government. The Reformed Church in America traces its breakaway from the Netherlands administration to the influence of Frelinghuysen.
 
Prior to 1740 Hendrick Fisher represented Somerset County in the New Jersey Colonial Assembly. He represented New Jersey at the Colonial Congress ("The Stamp Act Congress") of October, 1765 which drew up the historic letter of grievance to the authorities in England. Aside from repudiating the Stamp Act, this document was an important precursor to the Declaration of Independence. In 1766 he was one of the founders and trustees of Queen's College, eventually renamed Rutgers University.
 
He was the first President of the breakaway New Jersey Provincial Congress. On July 6, 1775 the Continental Congress issued a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms. On August 19, 1775, as President of the New Jersey Provincial Congress, he sent an order to the New Jersey counties and townships to send in the names of elected military officers to the Committee of Safety appointed by the Provincial Congress to meet at Princeton on August 29, 1775, so that commissions could be made out for them.
 
Hendrick Fisher was present at the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was passed. Being an alternate delegate, he did not sign the document. He was 79 years old at the time and must have been considered a senior advisor. The signers were generally much younger. Upon returning home, he brought a copy of the Declaration of Independence and read it to the public on July 9, 1776 at the Frelinghuysen Tavern in Bound Brook.
 
Hendrick Fisher died in 1778 at the age of 81.