Newton, John (1725–1807)

English clergyman and hymn-writer. In 1764 he was offered the curacy of Olney in Buckinghamshire and took orders. There he became a friend of the poet William Cowper and the two men worked together on the Olney Hymns (1779). In 1779 Newton became rector of St Mary Woolnoth, London.

Some of Newton's hymns are still sung today, including ‘Approach, my soul, the mercy-seat’, ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds’, ‘One there is above all others’, and ‘Amazing Grace’. His prose works include Remarkable Particulars in his own Life (1764).

Born in London, the son of a shipmaster, Newton sailed with his father for six years, and for ten years engaged in the African slave trade. In 1748 he was converted to Christianity, but continued slave trading. He became tide surveyor at Liverpool in 1755.