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 would crown the beauty of the distant view of Serampore, as seen from the Governor-General's country seat at Barrackpore, on the opposite shore of the Hughly river. The church had not long been completed when the town passed into the hands of the English. Although in Bengal the representatives of the two nations were on friendly terms, the outbreak of hostilities in Europe obliged them to adopt a similar course. On intelligence arriving in Calcutta of war having been declared between England and Denmark, a detachment of troops from Fort William took possession of Serampore, at six o'clock on the morning of the 28th of January, 1808; at the same time, a naval detachment seized the Danish ships lying in the river off the town. With that event the trade of the settlement ceased, and when, in 1815, the town was restored to the Danish Crown, but few Danes remained as residents.

During the seven years of the English occupation, the church was in the charge of the Baptist missionaries, and they continued to conduct services in it till, in 1845, the town came finally under the English Government, when the church was transferred to the care of a chaplain. It is the "Serampore missionaries" who have given the town its chief interest, and claim to notice.