Christ Church Parish was founded in 1702. The church is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places and is part of the Four Corners Historic District, which includes the neighboring Presbyterian and Quaker houses of worship and the Allen House.

The memorial Palladian window behind the altar at Christ Church dates from 1867. George DeHaert Gillespie, a major church benefactor, contributed the window. While at one time the window had an exterior exposure, a 1950s expansion enclosed the area for increased sacristy and choir robing space.

The Rev. George Keith, an Anglican missionary sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in London, held services in 1702 in the home of Lewis Morris, later Royal Governor of New Jersey. Christ Church, Middletown, was part of the original parish served by a common vestry and a single rector. It became an independent parish in 1854.

In 1706, the parish acquired a small parcel of land at the present-day intersection of Broad Street and Sycamore Avenue, Shrewsbury.

Abraham Russell, a master brick mason from New York, erected the first “brick and lime” church in Shrewsbury in 1732-3. In 1738, King George II granted its official charter, which was signed by the royal governor and is on display in the church. In 1739, William Leeds Jr. bequeathed the church a 500-acre glebe, or income-producing farm, in Lincroft, then Leedsville. In 1743, the SPG sent a schoolmaster, Christopher Reynolds, who opened the first common school in eastern New Jersey on the church property.

Needing more space, Christ Church, commissioned the noted colonial architect, Robert Smith, to draw up plans for the present church. It was funded by lotteries conducted in 1758 and 1760. Since lotteries were illegal in New Jersey, the drawings were held on Biles Island in the Delaware River and in Sandy Hook Bay. The new church was constructed between 1769 and 1774 under the leadership of the Rev. Samuel Cooke, the last SPG missionary serving Christ Church.

After a Revolutionary period hiatus, he was replaced by a homegrown rector, the Rev. Henry Waddell, and the parish has had uninterrupted clerical leadership since.

During the Revolution, patriot soldiers used Christ Church as barracks. Since the church was a symbol of the British Crown, they shot at the pulpit and at the orb and crown atop the steeple.

A 19^th-century rector, the Rev. Harry Finch, founded St. James Memorial, Eatontown; Trinity, Red Bank; and St. James, Long Branch. All Saints Memorial, Navesink; St. Thomas, Red Bank; St. John’s, Little Silver; St. George’s-by-the-River, Rumson; the Church of the Holy Communion, Fair Haven, and the chapel at what is now Allaire Historic Village, Wall, also trace their ancestry directly back to Christ Church.

Christ Church has celebrated the anniversary of the 1702 founding of the parish and the 1769 cornerstone laying many times. President Ulysses Grant attended the 100th anniversary of the church in 1869. In 2002, the church celebrated its tercentenary with numerous historic services and a major Historic Objects Exhibit.

Architectural Details and Historic Objects

Christ Church has many special historic features. Two canopied pews flank the sanctuary, the only surviving original examples of such pews. The one on the north was reserved for the royal governor; that on the south for the rector and family. The remaining pews are "slip" pews, which were built in 1844 from the original box pews with doors. The latter used wood from the original church pews. In those days, pews were rented to support the church.

A parishioner, George DeHart Gillespie, donated the center sanctuary window. The flanking sanctuary windows are from the old St Thomas Church, Houston St. and Broadway, New York. Two of the antique chandeliers were the gift of Dr Smith Cutter in the 1840s. The third, a twin of the chandelier in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, was acquired in 1996 in memory of the Rev. James LeSage, rector. The church’s original small pump organ was replaced by an Odell organ in 1874 and is now the oldest church organ in use in Monmouth County.

The clock tower and clock were added in the 1870s, funded by parishioners and the village. Christ Church has had a churchyard bell since the mid 18th century. The latest, acquired in 1825, is called "Old Eli" after the Rev. Eli Wheeler who arranged its acquisition. It was cast in France in 1788 and hung in a convent in Santo Domingo. At Christ Church, it hung in the great oak in the churchyard until it was installed in the clock tower. The weathervane includes the crown and orb, symbols of the British Empire. The original orb was pierced by patriot musket fire during the Revolutionary War but survived and is in the church archives along with a wood-embedded musketball.

The church has a collection of old books including numerous Bibles and Books of Common Prayer. Among them is the so-called "Vinegar" Bible (pictured at left) was printed by John Basket in Oxford in 1717 and presented to the church in 1752 by Roger Elliston, comptroller of His Majesty's Customs in New York. It is called the Vinegar Bible from a misprinting of the Parable of the Vineyard. It was in use until 1916 and is on display in the church. The prayer books include a 1662 prayer book of Queen Elizabeth and one given to the parish in 1760 by William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin. William was the last New Jersey colony royal governor. Queen Anne gave the parish a silver Communion service set 1708, and it is used every Christmas. King George II donated two pewter alms basins.