John Newton

Born in London in 1725, John Newton went to sea at a young age and spent part of his early career involved in the Atlantic slave trade. After a turbulent life marked by danger, captivity, and a powerful religious awakening, he eventually left that work behind and entered the Church of England.

Newton later served as a minister in Olney and then at St. Mary Woolnoth in London. He became widely known as a preacher, letter writer, and hymn writer, especially through the Olney Hymns, created with the poet William Cowper.

He is remembered most of all as the author of “Amazing Grace,” but also for the way his later life confronted the moral failures of his past. In his final years, he supported the movement to abolish the slave trade, giving his life story an enduring place in religious and social history.