A General Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 3 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A General Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 3

Newton (john) an episcopal clergy man of Calvinistic principles, born in London in 1795. He did not enjoy the advantages of a regular education, having, in the early part of his life, been taken to sea by his father, who was master of a merchant-ship. Becoming commander of a vessel employed in the slave trade, he made several voyages to the coast of Africa, for the purpose of carrying on that dis gusting trafl'ic, and in the mean time contracted habits of dissipation and vice, which the bru talizing scenes he witnessed tended to origi nate and confirm. At length he grew serious and fond of study, and having relinquished the occupation of a mariner, he, in 1755, obtained the office of tide-surveyor of the port'of Liver pool. There he remained several years, and during the latter part of that period he be came a preacher, and made some abortive at tempts to gain a settlement as pastor to a dis senting congregation. In 1764 he was ordained a clergyman of the church of England, by the bishop of Lincoln, and immediately after, through the intervention of lord Dartmouth, he was appointed curate of Olney in Bucking hamshire. During a residence of fifteen years at that place, he formed an intimate friendship with the poet Cowper, whence originated a vo lume of hymns for public worship, their joint composition. In 1779 Mr Newton removed to London, on being promoted to the rectory of St Mary Woolnoth, which he held till his death in December 1007. He was the author of a Review of Ecclesiastical History, 1770, 8vo Messiah, or a Series of Discourses on the Scriptural Passages which form the Ora torio of Handel, 1786, 2 vols. 8vo and other works, which have been printed toge ther, in 6 vols. 8vo and 12 vols. 12mm Evang. Mag.

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