John Newton
For the American Civil War general, see John Newton (ACW)John Newton (
July 24,
1725 –
December 21,
1807) was an
English clergyman,
slaveship master and author who wrote the
hymn "
Amazing Grace" after converting to Christianity and abandoning his participation in the
slave trade.
Newton was born in
London, the son of a shipmaster in the
Mediterranean service. His mother died when he was a child, and he sailed with his father on a total of six voyages until
1742 when his father died. In
1743 he was pressed into naval service, became a
midshipman aboard the HMS
Harwich, deserted, was recaptured and reduced to the rank of a common seaman, exchanged to a ship in the
African station, became a
servant to a slave trader, and was rescued in
1748 by a friend of his father's, being
converted to Christianity on the way home in a storm at sea. The date was
May 10, 1748, an anniversary he observed for the rest of his life. From that point on, he avoided
profanity,
gambling, and
drinking.
He continued at sea till
1754, meanwhile studying
Latin and the
Bible. It was after much soul searching and Bible reading that Newton saw the horrors of slavery and the hypocrisy it made him feel as a Christian. He soon gave up his association with slave shipping. He was surveyor of tides at
Liverpool, England from
1755 to
1760, where he heard
George Whitefield and
John Wesley preach, and later studied
Greek,
Hebrew, and
Syriac.
In
1763 he was brought to the notice of Lord Dartmouth by
Thomas Haweis, through whose influence he was ordained deacon and priest in
1764, and given the curacy of
Olney,
Buckinghamshire. In
1767 the poet
William Cowper settled there, and the result of their friendship was the
Olney Hymns (London, 1779 and often), which greatly influenced English hymnology. Other well-known hymns by Newton include "Approach, My Soul, the Mercy Seat," "Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare," and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken."
In
1779 Newton was invited by
John Thornton to become Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth,
Lombard Street, London, where he officiated until his death in
1807. He was a strong supporter of
evangelicalism in the
Church of England, and was a friend of the
dissenting clergy as well as of the ministry of his own church. John Newton died in London and is buried in
Olney. Olney also has a museum in his honor.
Among Newton's greatest contributions to history was in 1785 encouraging the newly converted Member of Parliament,
William Wilberforce, to stay in Parliament and "serve God where he was," rather than enter the ministry. Wilberforce heeded the ex-slaveship captain's advice, and spent the next five decades successfully working for the Abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
Hardly less famous than the hymns was his
Authentic Narrative of Some...Particulars in the Life of John Newton (London, 1764, 9th. ed., 1799; an account of his early life). He wrote also,
Sermons Preached in . . . Olney (1767);
Omicron: Twenty-six Letters on Religious Subjects (1774; subsequent editions, in which the number of the letters became forty-one);
Cardiphonia; or, the Utterance of the Heart in the Course of a real Correspondence (2 vols., 1781);
Letters to a Wife (2 vols., 1793), and other works.
A collected edition of his works was issued by his executors (6 vols., London, 1808; new ed., 12 vols., 1821).
Newton was recognized for his hymns of longstanding influence by the
Gospel Music Association in
1982 when he was inducted into the
Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
The town of Newton,
Sierra Leone is named after John Newton. To this day there is a philanthropic link between John Newton's church of Olney, Milton Keynes and Newton,
Sierra Leone.
According to his book "Bury The Chains," Adam Hochschild states that John Newton wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" while he was still involved in the slave trade.
*
"But Now I See" An Autobiography and Narrative, Compiled Chiefly From His Diary And Other Unpublished Documents.By Josiah Bull, M.A.,First Published In 1868
(Reprinted by)
The Banner of Truth, 1998Public Domain
*
Amazing Grace: The Story of John Newton*
Amazing Grace: John Newton information.*
Olney-Newton, Sierra Leone Project
