nly
dependent on annual donations.

With the view of forming such an endowment for the church as would make
it eligible for consecration, a freehold estate near at hand was
purchased in the month of November, 1816, although the price of it
exceeded the sum subscribed by 200 pounds, but which amount it was
expected the Parliamentary Commissioners would repay. Thomas Morgan's
house, garden, buildings, and lands adjoining the chapel were also
purchased for nearly 400 pounds, the former being partly preserved in the
back part of the present parsonage-house. Thus the property appropriated
to the new church consisted at this time of the five acres of Crown land,
the purchased freehold, and Thomas Morgan's property, on which, as an
ecclesiastical endowment, the consecration of the church, under the name
of Christ Church, took place, on Wednesday, 7th July, 1816, by Bishop
Ryder, and was duly conveyed to the following gentlemen as trustees,
viz., the Right Honourable N. Vansittart, Lord Calthorpe, James Jenkins,
George Baring, T. T. Biddulph, Esqrs.; Reverends J. Hensman and E.
Mansfield.

[Picture: Christ Church, Berry Hill]

The body of the building forms a parallelogram 50 feet by 42 feet; the
tower, upwards of 60 feet high, was built some years afterwards, at a
cost of 1,000 pounds. Unfortunately, serious inconvenience ensued to Mr.
Procter by his having caused the whole of the above-named endowment
property to be conveyed to the church previous to its consecration,
since, on presenting the memorial to the Board for the payment of the
accustomed Parliamentary grant, the case was pronounced "irregular,"
rendering Mr. Procter liable to a debt of 950 pounds, although 500 pounds
of the amount was eventually paid by Pyncombe's Charity and Queen Anne's
Board. The sum of 2,000 pounds was granted, however, by the
Parliamentary Board to be laid out in the purchase of land, yielding in
the mean time an interest of 4 pounds per cent., and raising the total
income of the living to 118 pounds 10s. 6d., or thereabouts. Mr. Procter
died on the 8th May, 1822, aged 52, worn out by excessive devotion to his
pastoral duties, and was succeeded by the Rev. T. R. Garnsey, who, after
a life of similar usefulness, expired in March, 1847. His funeral sermon
was preached on Sunday, the 14th of March, by the Rev. H. Poole, from
Hebrews xii. 2. The church was densely crowded, many could not obtain an
entrance, and all appe