John Newton

John Newton (1725-1807) was originally a sea merchant trafficking in the slave trade. He was converted during a storm on a voyage in 1748; however, for a number of years he continued to captain slave ships. From 1755 to 1760 he was surveyor of the tides in Liverpool and began to exercise his spiritual gifts in meetings in his home, even entertaining George Whitefield. Newton became a Calvinist at this time, but was friendly to John Wesley, numerous dissenters, as well as his Anglican evangelical friends. Newton tried to obtain orders in the church but was rejected; he contemplated becoming a dissenter, but eventually attained the curacy at Olney in 1764. During his years in Olney, Newton became friends with the poet William Cowper (they collaborated on the Olney Hymns in 1779) and John Ryland, Jr., one of his favorite correspondents. In 1780 Newton became curate of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, remaining there until his death in 1807. He influenced a number of Anglican evangelicals, including Charles Simeon, Hannah More, and William Wilberforce. His autobiography, An Authentic Narrative (1764), was immensely popular, as well as his hymn, “Amazing Grace.” See L. G. Champion, “The Letters of John Newton to John Ryland,” Baptist Quarterly 27 (1977-1778), 157-163.