Who stopped the clock? That was the question posed in 1842 by a seven-year-old boy to the Vicar of Brighton when he rode his horse in Upper North Street.

It may have sounded an innocent enough query but it proved too much for the imposing Rev Henry Wagner who had been tormented in the town ever since he refused to wind the clock at St Peter’s in a row over church rates.

The boy darted into his house nearby. Wagner dismounted and followed him inside. He burst open the bolted door of a back room where the youngster was hiding and gave him several strokes with his riding crop.

Later the boy’s father, who had not been there at the time, went with him to confront Wagner at the vicarage in Montpelier Road, but the high-handed vicar refused to see them. It was a bad mistake.

The father, Stephen Grover, did not have to look far to find an enemy of the Vicar, a solicitor. Together they took out a summons for assault against Wagner.

In a widely publicised court case, Wagner was convicted and fined £2 with costs. Despite all his good work, the assault harmed his reputation.

Wagner was a divisive figure, a High Tory in a radical town. Before elections were held in secret, he would be roundly jeered as he cast his vote at the hustings.

He was constantly involved in disputes and often behaved in a dictatorial manner. He was afraid of no one.

By tradition, church bells were rung in Brighton when the Sovereign came to town, but one Sunday they were silent, When William IV asked why, Wagner replied that on the Sabbath they were rung only for the King of Kings.

The pious Queen Adelaide approved of this answer.

Wagner had been tutor to the sons of the Duke of Wellington from whom he may have derived some of his imperious ways. He named his first son, Arthur, after him.

He came to Brighton following his marriage to the daughter of the Vicar of St Nicholas Church and soon established what the Bishop of Chichester described as “a bishopric within a bishopric”.

A wealthy man, Wagner had six churches built in Brighton. Only two survive, St John’s in Carlton Hill and St Paul’s in West Street.

The others were All Saints in Compton Avenue, All Souls in Eastern Road, Christ Church in Montpelier Road and St Anne’s in Kemp Town.

Because there were so many poor people in Brighton, Wagner made sure thousands of pew seats were free. Before his tenure, it had been the general custom to charge for them.

Wagner also helped many deprived people from his own pocket and was generous to appeals, particularly one set up to fund the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

He was a redoubtable speaker and his address in Brighton on the death of Abraham Lincoln was reckoned to be finer than any made in Parliament.

When he died in 1870 aged 77, he had been Vicar for 46 years. Crowds lined the streets for the funeral procession from St Nicholas Church to the parochial cemetery and all churches were hung in black.

A plaque will be unveiled to him and his son at the old vicarage in Temple Gardens on Saturday, July 10, at 3.45 pm.

Next week’s feature will be about the equally remarkable and controversial Rev Arthur Wagner.