John Newton
John Newton (1725–1807) lived one of the most dramatic stories of redemption in Christian history—from a rebellious sailor and slave trader to a humble pastor and author of one of the world’s most beloved hymns, “Amazing Grace.” His life is a vivid portrait of God’s mercy transforming even the hardest heart.
Newton was born in London, England, the son of a sea captain. His mother was a devoted Christian who taught him Scripture and hymns, but she died when he was just seven years old. Afterward, Newton was sent to sea with his father, and by his teenage years, he was hardened, wild, and profane. His early life was marked by rebellion, blasphemy, and reckless living.
At nineteen, Newton was forced into service in the British navy. He tried to desert but was caught, publicly flogged, and demoted. Bitter and humiliated, he eventually left the navy and joined a slave-trading ship bound for Africa. There, he became deeply entangled in the slave trade, working on ships that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas. For a time, he even lived in Africa himself, where he was cruelly mistreated by another trader.
In 1748, Newton’s life took a sudden and dramatic turn. During a fierce storm at sea, the ship he was on began to sink. Certain he was about to die, Newton cried out to God for mercy. The ship survived, and Newton marked that night as the beginning of his conversion. It would take years for his heart and habits to fully change, but the seed of grace had been planted. He later said, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”
Eventually, Newton left the sea and the slave trade behind. He studied theology, married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, and in 1764 was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. He served first in Olney and later in London, where his preaching was powerful and deeply personal. He never forgot where he had come from. On the wall above his study desk he kept a reminder: “Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”
In Olney, Newton became friends with the poet William Cowper, and together they published the Olney Hymns—a collection that included “Amazing Grace.” The hymn captured Newton’s life story in its opening lines, expressing the wonder of a sinner saved by grace.
In his later years, Newton became a passionate opponent of the slave trade, influencing young reformers like William Wilberforce. His testimony helped fuel the movement that eventually abolished slavery in Britain.
John Newton died in 1807 at age eighty-two, the same year the British Parliament outlawed the slave trade. On his tombstone, he chose his own epitaph:
“John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.”
Few lives have so powerfully displayed the truth of the gospel he wrote about: that amazing grace can save even the most unlikely soul.