Christ Church, Newton

Interior of Christ Church, facing the altar and chancel

In a 1770 letter, the Rev'd Dr Thomas B. Chandler, rector of St John's Church in the provincial capital Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), reported that he had visited Sussex County in the northwestern part of the province of New Jersey in November 1769 and found that there were 50 families belonging to the Church of England in the region. Chandler reported that "they frequently assemble in private houses and read the Liturgy" and that an Anglican clergyman "had never been in those parts before."[12]^: 7 Many of these families met at Newton, the county seat of Sussex County, on 28 December 1769, to establish an Anglican parish.[lower-alpha 2][12]^: 10[14]

On 15 August 1774, Christ Church was formally incorporated as The Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of Christ's Church at New Town, in the county of Sussex and province of New Jersey. The colony's last royal governor, William Franklin, granted and signed a charter on behalf of Britain's King George III.[12]^: 11[15][16] The congregation petitioned the East Jersey Board of Proprietors, a colonial land agency, asking for their assistance to establish a church. The board granted a warrant for 200 acres (81 ha) of land yet unappropriated in Sussex County to serve as an income-generating glebe to support the church. The tract chosen by the congregation was located approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of Newton (in present-day Fredon Township, then part of Hardwick Township) and conveyed to the church on 16 December 1774 by the colony's last royal attorney general, Cortlandt Skinner, and John Johnston.[17] Jonathan Hampton (1716–1777), a landowner, coachmaker, and merchant from Elizabethtown, deeded lands from his surveyed town plot to the congregation on 14 December 1774 "for the encouragement of the Episcopal religion...and toward the maintenance & support of a parson officiating in said church".[18]

In 1774, Royal Governor William Franklin signed the charter that incorporated "Christ's Church at New Town, in the county of Sussex...".

The congregation called for a clergyman, and the Rev'd Uzal Ogden, Jr. (1744–1822) was sent as a missionary lay reader and catechist in 1770 to the area on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He would become rector in 1773 after his ordination.[12]^: 11 According to local historian Kevin Wright, the parsonage was built circa 1770 by local land agent John Pettit.[18] During his tenure, Ogden held services at Newton on the third Sunday each month as he served an area of roughly 2,000 square miles (5,200 km²) and divided other Sundays among congregations in Roxbury, Knowlton, and Hackettstown.[12]^: 13–14 Services were held in the County Court House (built 1762–1765), which he described in 1771 as "very commodious and serves us to perform Divine Service in".[18] During the Revolution, Ogden supported the cause of American independence, and according to tradition quartered sheep in the parsonage basement for the use of the Continental Army.[18] Ogden left Christ Church in 1784 to become an assistant at Trinity Church in New York City, and later served as rector of Trinity Church, Newark, where his father served as warden.[16]

Although Ogden was listed as Christ Church's rector until as late as 1792 and preached infrequently in the area,[12]^: 16 the rectorate in Newton remained without a clergyman until the appointment of the Rev'd Clarkson Dunn in 1820. During the 36 years, services were held irregularly, at the court house; this was an era described as "a long period of discouragement, almost of dissolution."[12]^: 16 The congregation reported only six communicants during this time.[19] Dunn would operate a school at the rectory beginning in December 1823. Assisted by William Rankin, an English teacher, Dunn taught classics. Dunn remained in this charge until 1857 when his son-in-law, the Rev'd Nathaniel Pettit, assumed the pulpit.[19]

The congregation's first church building was erected beginning in May 1823 and consecrated a few months later on 19 November 1823 by the Rt Rev'd John Croes, Bishop of New Jersey. This building was located at the corner of Church and Main streets, on a tract of land conveyed to the congregation by William T. Anderson, a local attorney.[20] The Gothic structure was described as small; it accommodated 250 worshipers.[12]^: 19[19][21] Toward the end of Pettit's tenure, the congregation was compelled to build a new church building as their current building had become unstable and unsafe. During the construction, the congregation met at the county courthouse and at Rinker's Hall, a building located near the courthouse on the Newton Town Green.[12]^{: 23–24, 27}

Christ Church, seen from across the street, during Winter 1910

According to Snell, during the forty-five-year tenures of Dunn and Pettit as rectors, "parochial statistics from 1820 to 1867 show an aggregate of 510 baptisms, 241 confirmations, 334 marriages, and 468 funerals". The growth in membership necessitated a new, larger edifice.[19] To fund the construction of a new church building, the congregation sought the permission of the state legislature to sell the lands granted to it by warrant. Permission was given in 1867.[22] The congregation sold this property on 10 May 1868 for $15,579.[17] The congregation also sold its parsonage and accompanying lands for $17,600 to prominent lawyer, Levi Shepherd in October.[18] A loan to support the construction was provided by Robert Hamilton (1809–1878), a vestryman and warden and generous financial contributor to the parish.[12]^: 33 Hamilton was a prominent political figure, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1863 and 1864, the latter year as Speaker, and from 1873 to 1877, he represented the New Jersey's 4th congressional district (covering northwestern New Jersey) in the United States House of Representatives.[23] In 1879, a year after Hamilton's death, his widow Sarah forgave the loan, which left the church debt free after the construction.[12]^: 33

Local historian Frank Greenagel writes that "the Episcopal church formalized its adherence to the English Gothic style in the late 1840s under the influence of a powerful bishop, George Washington Doane", and that the parish at Newton among many in the state adhere to that style.[24][25] The vestry and diocese contracted "for the building of a new church...for $23,000" on the site of the old church building by contractor Isaac L. Overton of Newark, New Jersey from a design by architect Jonathan V. Nichols.[17] The first service was held on 11 July 1869, and the building was consecrated by the Bishop of New Jersey, the Rt Rev'd, William Henry Odenheimer (1817–1879) on 20 October 1869.[17] Today the structure boasts a three-story bell tower, but previously the tower was topped by a 108-foot high spire surmounted by a 12-foot high cross. This spire was removed after being struck by lightning on three occasions.[9]

A rectory, built in 1868–1869, was used for that purpose for thirty years before being renovated for activity space for church organizations and fellowship. In October 1901, the Vestry of Christ Church authorised purchase of a new rectory located on Liberty Street. Holley Hall, the central facility for parish activities, was constructed with a 1965 bequest from the estate of Alice Herbert Holley, daughter-in-law of the Rev'd William Welles Holley, fourth rector, who was the first to reside in the former rectory after its completion in 1869.