John Newton
Born: July 24, 1725, London, England.
Died: December 21, 1807, London, England.
Buried: Originally at St. Mary Woolnoth Church, Lombard Street, London. In 1893, Newton and his wife Mary were reinterred in the southeast corner of the graveyard at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, Olney.
Pseudonym: Omicron.
Newton’s mother died when he was seven years old. At age 11, with but two years schooling and only a rudimentary knowledge of Latin, he went to sea with his father. Life at sea was filled with wonderful escapes, vivid dreams, and a sailor’s recklessness. He grew into a godless and abandoned man. He was once flogged as a deserter from the navy, and for 15 months lived, half starved and ill treated, as a slave in Africa.
A chance reading of Thomas à Kempis sowed the seed of his conversion. It was accelerated by a night spent steering a waterlogged ship in the face of apparent death. He was then 23 years old. Over the next six years, during which he commanded a slave ship, his faith matured. He spent the next nine years mostly in Liverpool, studying Hebrew and Greek and mingling with Whitefield, Wesley, and the Nonconformists. He was eventually ordained, and became curate at Olney, Buckinghamshire, in 1764. His works include:
Omicron, 1762
A volume of sermons preached at Olney, 1767
Review of Ecclesiastical History, 1769
Olney Hymns, with William Cowper (London: W. Oliver, 1779)
Cardiphonia, 1781
Source: The Cyber Hymnal