[2] His wealth and his successful ministry at St Paul's allowed Wagner to found new churches in growing suburbs such as Hanover, Montpelier and the London Road/Lewes Road areas, which were notable both for their richly designed interiors and for their determinedly Tractarian tradition.

This was demolished and replaced by a new vicarage (still extant as part of Brighton and Hove High School, and now a Grade II listed building)[19][20] in 1835.

He attended St Nicholas' parish church from an early age, and is believed to have gone to school for a time at an "academy for young gentlemen" in Montpelier Road, next to where the new vicarage was later built.

[18] Henry Michell Wagner had already funded three new Anglican churches in Brighton when, in 1846, he engaged the Tractarian-influenced architect Richard Cromwell Carpenter to design and build a fourth specifically for Arthur Wagner—who had already formed Tractarian views on ecclesiology and worship, particularly through the influence of Joshua Watson, his step-grandfather and a prominent High Churchman.

[1][18] St Paul's Church, centrally located on West Street close to long-established poor districts around the old town, was completed in 1848 and consecrated in October 1849.

George Frederick Bodley, a Gothic Revival architect who lived in Brighton at the time, was responsible for the simple design, and Wagner paid for the £2,500 cost himself.

[30] Local architect William Dancy designed an Early English Gothic Revival building on an awkward, narrow and sloping site on Washington Street.

[26] Wagner founded a temporary church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew in 1868 in the densely populated area between London Road and Brighton railway station.

[37] At the time of his death, Henry Michell Wagner was planning to found another Anglican church in Brighton and had set aside £3,000 from his personal wealth, but had not decided on a location or any other details.

The Round Hill area was being developed with high-density housing at this time, and the Wagner family planned to build the church on the west side of Lewes Road opposite the bottom of Elm Grove.

Named the Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was linked with St Paul's Church:[1] the sisters helped to look after the building, visit parishioners and run the Sunday School.

[43] Wagner and the sisters maintained a strict regime, with regular surveillance, hard work and punishments for misbehaviour,[45] but the women were offered proper healthcare, education, training for domestic service, and charitable help.

Wagner's ill health meant no action could be taken to address this; but ten years after his death, a large new site was secured on the Falmer Road in Rottingdean[Note 2] and a much larger building designed by local architect F.T.

[47] Short-lived stints as an old people's home, a school and a centre for the Church of Scientology ended in 1977, 1980 and 1984 respectively, at which point it was converted into flats called Rottingdean Place (opened in 1987).

[46] "The most famous incident of Arthur Wagner's life"[48] concerned his involvement with the trial of Constance Kent, who committed one of Victorian England's most notorious murders.

[48] Kent was a 16-year-old girl who lived in Rode, Somerset with an extended family of siblings and half-siblings, her father and his second wife, and various housemaids and other household employees.

Even before her birth mother died, Kent's stepmother Mary Drewe Pratt "acquired a dominant position in the household" and behaved disrespectfully towards her.

The local police had great difficulty establishing a motive or making any progress with the case, and even when Inspector Jonathan Whicher was called in from Scotland Yard no successful prosecution was achieved—although both Constance Kent and a governess were arrested, charged and released at various times.

Enjoying convent life but unable to stay at Dinan for ever, a mutual friend wrote to Arthur Wagner asking if he could accommodate her at St Mary's Home for Penitents as a paying guest.

[52] When the case was heard in May 1865, Wagner was cross-examined; his refusal to state what Constance Kent had said to him during her confession resulted in an "outburst of ultra-Protestant fury".

[53] Public disquiet at the use of Catholic-style ritual at St Paul's Church[48] turned to national outrage when it was established that confession was heard.

[1][56] Only after national newspapers such as The Times and The Morning Post ran articles condemning the ultra-Protestant disturbances in Brighton did the furor die down.

Wagner wrote to William Ewart Gladstone several times during her imprisonment asking for leniency to be shown and to try to secure her early release, but without success.

"One of his hidden charities" involved lending small amounts of money regularly to small-scale housebuilders who wanted to build these houses but could not afford large loans from conventional providers.

His generally "simple" and "ascetic" lifestyle, which included lifelong fasting on Fridays,[30] contrasted with his enthusiasm for collecting manuscripts and books, which totalled 12,000 by his death.

[42] Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone worshipped at St Paul's Church whenever he was in Brighton and was "a slight acquaintance" of Wagner's.

He also contributed hundreds of pounds annually to church schools and considerably more to the running of St Mary's Home for Penitents: it is known that he spent £2,500 on it in 1865, for example.

Arthur Wagner's tolerant personality and aversion to quarrel contrasted with his father, who enjoyed challenging his opponents and asserting his authority.

In Arthur Wagner's case, this ability to remain aloof to opposition was helped by his remote, introvert nature and aversion to publicity: he did little beyond his church work, his lifestyle was simple and austere, and was described by one friend as humourless.