![]() His applications to become a priest, however, were all turned down, until 1764 when he was introduced to Lord Dartmouth.īy this time Newton was married to Mary Catlett and he was assigned to Olney as curate, a position he would hold for the next 16 years. On his return to dry land, he became well known as a lay preacher and studied Greek and Hebrew as he prepared to be taken in by the Church of England. It wasn’t until 34 years later that he would write a pamphlet in condemnation of the trade and became an ally of William Wilberforce. He would make three more trips on slave ships until eventually renouncing the trade in 1754. Newton did not stay in England long, sailing from Liverpool on the Brownlow, a slave ship heading for the West Indies. It was a change in life and belief that was to influence some of his greatest work.Įschewing drinking and gambling, he became an evangelical Christian, although he continued to work within the slave trade. In 1748 he managed to escape and returned to England, finding his belief in God along the way. ![]() Newton was abandoned by the crew of the ship he was on and, stranded on the African continent, was given to an African princess who treated him as one of her slaves. He was noted for being one of the most blasphemous individuals the captain had ever met. He was known for baiting the ship’s captain with profane poems and verse and was liable to take a drink or two. Whilst he initially tried to escape and was flogged publicly, Newton transferred his allegiance to a slave ship heading for Africa. Following a brief education, he traveled on board ship with his father for a while and, in 1743, he was press ganged by the Royal Navy. Newton lost his mother to tuberculosis at the age of seven and was then sent to boarding school. Son of a merchant seaman and trader, he worked aboard slave ships in Africa and the West Indies before becoming an abolitionist in later life. ![]() Anyone who has heard the hymn Amazing Grace sung either in a stadium or in church will know the work of poet John Newton who was born in London in 1725. ![]()
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