Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg was born January 1, 1750 in Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, son of the noted Lutheran theologian Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg. Like his father, Frederick received his theological training at the University of Halle in Germany and was later ordained as a Lutheran minister by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania on October 20, 1770. He served parishes in Pennsylvania and New York City from 1770 to August 1779, when he then became a member of the Second Continental Congress. From 1780 to 1783 Muhlenberg served as speaker in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He attended the Pennsylvania state convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1787, where he served as president, and then won election to Congress as the first Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1789–91. As Speaker, he was the first to sign the Bill of Rights. After serving four consecutive terms in Congress, including a second term as Speaker from 1793–95, Muhlenberg retired from national politics in 1797. He served in Pennsylvania as president of the council of censors and receiver general of the state land office until his death at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 4, 1801.