Bernard Michael Houseal

Reverend Bernard Michael Houseal (Bernhard Michael Hausihl) (b. Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, 1727 - d. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 9 March 1799) was a German Lutheran minister in North America, and the first resident minister of Frederick, Maryland. He preached at the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Frederick, Maryland) (1752) and was the first German minister of Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia.He was a Loyalist refugee who escaped New York with his family and slaves.

He was a student at the University of Strassburg. He married Sybilla Margaretha Mayer, daughter of Christopher Bartholomew Mayer in the town of Ulm. They moved to Fredericktown, Maryland and established the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1752-1759). The building of the church was slowed as a result of the outbreak of the French and Indian War but was still completed before the war ended (1762). Houseal stayed with the Church for seven years and then moved to Reading, Pennsylvania and served in the Trinity Lutheran Church (1759). After nine years, he went to Easton, PA (1768).

He then went to New York City (1770) where he was the Senior minister in the Trinity Lutheran Church. He became a Governor of New York College (present-day Columbia University) and a corporators of the New York Hospital. He was one of the addressers Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe. Houseal was an out spoken loyalist and his house and church were burned by the rebels. After 14 years in New York City, he left for Nova Scotia as a loyalist refugee (1784). Rev. Houseal stayed in New York City until the formal evacuation. Before he left the Vestry of Trinity church his congregation presented him with a letter that stated:

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