John Newton

John Newton (1725–1807) was an English clergyman and hymn-writer. The son of a merchant sea captain, he went to sea as a boy and later served on slave ships, including as a captain; after a near-fatal storm in 1748 he underwent a religious conversion, and he left the slave trade in 1754. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and served as curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, until 1780, then as rector of St Mary Woolnoth in London. In later life he spoke publicly against the slave trade and supported William Wilberforce's campaign for abolition.

At Olney he befriended the poet William Cowper, and together they compiled Olney Hymns (1779), in three books, for use in Newton's parish meetings. Newton wrote the great majority of the 348 hymns and Cowper 67 of them; Newton's include 'Amazing Grace' and 'Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken'. The Olney Hymns remained a staple of English-language evangelical worship.