John Newton

24 July 1725—21 December 1807

JOHN NEWTON was born in London, England, July 24, 1725. His father, John, had been trained at a Jesuit College in Spain, and for many years was master of a ship in the Mediterranean trade. His mother, Elizabeth, was connected with the Independent Church under the care of the Rev. Dr. Jennings. John was her only child. She died when he was but seven years old. Till then, his training was of the most godly sort. His father married again the following year, but the stepmother took little heed to the boy’s character. In his ninth year, he was sent to a boarding-school in Essex, and made some progress in Latin. At eleven, his father took him to sea, which he followed for four years. At the age of fifteen he was placed, with good prospects, at Alicante, Spain, but through his unsteadiness he lost his position.

A place was offered him in Jamaica, and in December 1742, previous to the sailing of the ship, he made a three days’ visit to Chatham, in Kent, to see the family of Mr. George Catlett—relatives of his deceased mother. Mary, the eldest daughter, scarcely fourteen, so charmed the young rover, that the three days were prolonged to three weeks, and the ship sailed without him. A voyage to Venice followed; and, at the expiration of a year, he returned to England. After a short stay on shore, he was impressed and taken as a sailor on board the war-ship Harwich. Influence was used, and he was promoted to the quarter-deck as a midshipman. In 1745, he deserted the ship at Plymouth, was brought back, degraded, ironed, and flogged.

He had become an infidel, and now threw off all restraint. At Madeira, he was transferred from the Harwich to a vessel bound for Sierra Leone in Africa. Entering into the service of a slave-dealer, on one of the Plaintain Islands, he suffered incredible hardships, and was reduced to the lowest straits. Informing his father of his condition, he was released (1748) from his misery, and taken on board a vessel commissioned to call for him. On the way home, they were overtaken by a storm that nearly sank the poor unseaworthy craft. It brought him to prayer, and to repentance. He reached home in May 1848—no longer an infidel, but a Christian by conviction.

His father, before his return, had gone out to Hudson’s Bay, as Governor of York Fort, and soon after died. Newton made another voyage, as mate, to the African coast. After his return, he was married, February 12, 1750, to Miss Catlett, whom he had never ceased to love devotedly since their first meeting seven years before. Two voyages as master, to Africa and the West Indies, closed, August 1754, his life at sea. Newton was a slave-trader, and in his two voyages carried probably not less than 500 Africans into West Indian slavery. A third voyage had been determined on, but, on the eve of sailing, an apoplectic attack intervened, and the sea was finally abandoned.

Having been appointed Tide Surveyor at Liverpool, he entered on the duties of the position, in August 1755, and held it nearly nine years. He now took an active part in meetings for prayer, and mission-movements. Occasionally he was persuaded to occupy the pulpit as a lay-preacher. At length, after consultation with friends, he determined to seek orders in the Church of England. On his later voyages, he had employed his leisure in the study of Euclid and the Latin language, and for many years he had been a diligent student of theology. Five years intervened between his first application and the successful accomplishment of his purpose. At length, the Curacy of Olney was offered him by the Vicar, Rev. Moses Browne; and, by the influence of the Earl of Dartmouth, the patron of Olney, he was admitted to orders. He was ordained deacon, April 29, 1764, and priest, June 17, 1764, at Buckden, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. He began his work at Olney, in May, and continued there an acceptable and most useful preacher and pastor, nearly sixteen years. Cowper and Mrs. Unwin became residents of Olney, and near neighbors of Newton, in September 1767.

In August 1764, he published An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of Newton. He had printed a volume of six Sermons in 1760 at Liverpool. In 1767, he published another volume of Sermons, twenty in number. His Review of Ecclesiastical History was issued in November 1769. He wrote a Series of twenty-six Letters for The Gospel Magazine, with the signature of “Omicron,” which, in July 1774, were published in one volume. The Olney Hymns appeared in 1779, just at the close of his Curacy. His Cardiphonia; or, The Utterance of the Heart, in the Course of a Real Correspondence, was published in 1781; his Apologia: Four Letters to a Minister of an Independent Church, in 1784; also, A Plan of Academical Preparation for the Ministry, and eight papers contributed to the Theological Miscellany. A Monument to the Lord’s Goodness was issued in 1785, in memory of his beloved niece Eliza Cunningham, who died that year. In 1786, he published his Messiah: Fifty Expository Discourses, on the Series of Scriptural Passages, which form the Subject of the celebrated Oratorio of Handel; in 1787, his Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade; in 1791, Christian Character Exemplified, in the case of Mrs. Margaret Althaus; and in 1793, in two volumes, his Letters to a Wife.

His friend, John Thornton, in August 1779, presented him to the Rectory of the united parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, London; and he entered upon his work there in December. His beloved and idolized wife was taken from him, December 15, 1790, dying from the effects of a cancer. His own death occurred, December 21, 1807, in his eighty-third year, and in the forty-fourth year of his ministry. He was buried in a vault under his church, and the following inscription, composed by himself, and engraved on a marble tablet, perpetuates his memory: “John Newton, Clerk, once an Infidel and Libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he had long labored to destroy.”

Newton was a sailor to the last, in his habits, his talk, and, to some extent, his apparel. His language in the pulpit was remarkably simple, yet always correct. His seafaring life had furnished him with a rich and varied experience, from which he was ever drawing forcible illustrations of divine truth. It appears continually in his poetry. Who, but a sailor, could have written the following hymn?

The billows swell, the winds are high,
Clouds overcast my wintry sky;
Out of the depths to thee I call,
My fears are great, my strength is small.

O Lord! the pilot’s part perform,
And guide and guard me through the storm;
Defend me from each threatening ill,
Control the waves! say, “Peace! be still!”

Amidst the roaring of the sea,
My soul still hangs her hope on thee;
Thy constant love, thy faithful care,
Is all that saves me from despair.

Dangers of every shape and name
Attend the followers of the Lamb,
Who leave the world’s deceitful shore,
And leave it to return no more.

Though tempest-tossed, and half a wreck.
My Saviour, through the floods, I seek;
Let neither winds, nor stormy rain,
Force back my shattered bark again.

by Edwin Hatfield
The Poets of the Church (1884)

Featured Hymns:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
How lost was my condition
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
One there is above all others

Collections of Hymns:

Twenty Six Letters on Religious Subjects to Which Are Added Hymns, &c.

1774, 1st ed. | PDF
1775, 2nd ed. | PDF
1777, 3rd ed. | PDF
1780, 4th ed. | PDF
1785 | PDF
1793 | PDF
1798 | PDF

Olney Hymns in Three Books

Note: Only London editions are listed here.

His hymns also appeared in:
Richard Conyers, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1772: PDF | 1774: PDF)
The Gospel Magazine (1771–1777 | website).

Related Works:

An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of [Mr. Newton] (1st ed., 1764 | PDF)
Sermons Preached in the Parish-Church of Olney (1767: PDF)
A Review of Ecclesiastial History (1770: PDF)
The Subject and Temper of the Gospel Ministry: A Sermon (1780: PDF)
Cardiphonia; or, the Utterance of the Heart (1st ed., 1781: Vol. 1 PDF | Vol. 2 PDF)
The Guilt and Danger of Such a Nation as This: A Sermon (1781: PDF)
A Token of Affection and Respect, to the Parishioners of St. Mary Woolnoth (1781: PDF)
A Plan of Academical Preparation for the Ministry (1782: PDF)
Apologia. Four Letters to a Minister of an Independent Church (1784: PDF)
A Monument to the Praise of the Lord's Goodness (3rd ed., 1785: PDF)
Messiah: Fifty Expository Discourses (1786: Vol. 1 PDF | Vol. 2 PDF)
A Sermon ... on the Death of Richard Conyers (1786: PDF)
The Best Wisdom: A Sermon (1787: PDF)
Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1788: PDF)
The Great Advent: A Sermon (1789: PDF)
The Christian Correspondent; or a Series of Religious Letters (1790: PDF)
Letters to a Wife (1793: Vol. 1 PDF | Vol. 2 PDF)
Political Debate on Christian Principles (1793: PDF)
The Imminent Danger: A Sermon (1794: PDF)
Motives to Humiliation and Praise: A Sermon (1798: PDF)
Three Letters upon Christian Experience (1798: PDF)
The Constraining Influence of the Love of Christ: A Sermon (1800: PDF)

Correspondence of the Late Rev. John Newton, with a Dissenting Minister (London: W. M’Dowell, 1809: Bodleian Library).
Letters and Conversational Remarks by the Late Rev. John Newton, ed. John Campbell (NY: S. Whiting, 1811: PDF).
Original letters from the Reverend John Newton, ed. William Barlass (London: J. Miller, 1819: WorldCat).
The Aged Pilgrim's Triumph ... A Series of Letters, ed. Walter Taylor et al. (London: Baker & Fletcher, 1825: PDF).
Twenty-Five Letters, Hitherto Unpublished, ed. Robert & Josiah Jones (Edinburgh: J. Johnstone, 1840: PDF).
Sixty-Six Letters from the Rev. John Newton, ed. James Coffin (London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., 1844: PDF); 2nd ed. Sixty Eight Letters, etc. (1845).
One Hundred and Twenty Nine Letters from the Rev. John Newton, ed. Josiah Bull (London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1847: PDF).

Collected Works:

The Works of the Rev. John Newton (1st ed., 1808)

Volume 1: PDF
Volume 2: PDF
Volume 3: PDF
Volume 4: PDF
Volume 5: PDF
Volume 6: PDF

The Works of the Rev. John Newton (New ed., 1821)

Volumes 1-2: PDF
Volumes 3-4: PDF
Volumes 5-6: PDF
Volumes 7-8: PDF
Volumes 9-10: PDF
Volumes 11-12: PDF

The Works of John Newton (Banner of Truth, 4 vols., 2015)

Volumes 1-4: Amazon | Worldcat

Manuscripts:

see Jonathan Aitken’s biography (2007), pp. 362–363, for a detailed list of MS collections, and add the John Newton and John Campbell Correspondence collection at Seattle Pacific University (PDF).

Olney Hymns, MS Eng 1317, Houghton Library, Harvard University:
https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:41261600$1i

Find it on Amazon

John Nwtn gallery

Biographies:

Richard Cecil, The Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, 2nd ed., Corrected (London: J. Hatchard, 1808): PDF

Josiah Bull, John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth (London: Religious Tract Society, 1868): PDF

John Gadsby, “John Newton,” Memoirs of the Principal Hymn-Writers & Compilers of the 17th, 18th, & 19th Centuries, 4th ed. (London, 1870): HathiTrust

Edwin Hatfield, “John Newton,” The Poets of the Church (NY: New York, A. D. F. Randolph & Company, 1884), pp. 469–473: Archive.org

Donald E. Demaray, The Innovation of John Newton (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988): Amazon

Bernard Braley, “John Newton,” Hymnwriters 2 (London: Stainer & Bell, 1989), pp. 1–58.

D. Bruce Hindmarsh, John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition (Oxford: University Press, 1996): Amazon

William E. Phipps, Amazing Grace in John Newton (2001): Amazon

Faith Cook, “John Newton (1725–1807): Grace so Amazing,” Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2005), pp. 187–212.

Jonathan Aitken, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007): Amazon

Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015): Amazon

Related Resources:

William T. Cairns, “The relations between John Newton and William Cowper,” HSGBI Bulletin, no. 16 (July 1941), pp. 1–5.

John Henry Johansen, The Olney Hymns, Papers of the Hymn Society, no. 20 (NY: Hymn Society, 1956): HathiTrust

Ronald E.C. Johnson, “The Olney hymnodists: A new judgment,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 8 (October 1967), pp. 148–152.

Janet M. Todd, “The preacher as prophet: John Newton’s evangelical hymns,” The Hymn, vol. 31, no. 3 (July 1980), pp. 150–154: HathiTrust

John Newton, Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/person/Newton_John

John Newton, Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/j/john-newton?q=John%20Newton

The John Newton Project:
https://www.johnnewton.org/

Cowper & Newton Museum:
http://www.cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/