Rev James Hutchinson is installed as Rector of the Great Berkhamsted Parish, presented by Prince Albert Edward, Duke of Cornwall and eldest son of Queen Victoria. Rev Hutchinson is the last rector of St Peter’s to be presented by a royal patron, before the patronage changes to the Earls of Brownlow. He succeeds Rev John Crofts, the Rector for over 40 years. During is 20-year incumbency (1851-1871), Hutchinson oversees the construction of a new Holy Trinity Church in Potten End, is involved in the commissioning of Edward Buckton Lamb’s ornate new Town Hall on Berkhamsted High Street; and heads the committee which appoints William Butterfield to begin a major restoration project on St Peter’s Church. Rev. Hutchinson retires in 1871. After his death in 1873, his widow, Sophia Jane Hutchinson, commissions a huge painted mural of the Ascension of Christ in the nave of St Peter’s. Rev James Hutchinson is laid to rest in Rectory Lane Cemetery.
