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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
One chapter of John Newton's life has been consistently overlooked by his biographers. It concerns his friendship with Thomas Haweis, the Evangelical whose importance students of eighteenth century English Church History are now beginning to realise. The influence of Whitefield, of Wesley, of Grimshaw upon Newton in his early and formative years has been amply recognised. The name of Haweis scarcely appears at all. Neither Richard Cecil, who continued Newton's own Authentic Narrative and also provided the prefatory memoir to his collected works, nor Josiah Bull, who in 1868 compiled what has remained the standard biography for more than three-quarters of a century, pay any real attention to Haweis. Nor does Bernard Martin's recent full-length portrait repair the omission. There are, it is true, several references to Haweis (though the index does not even succeed in spelling his name correctly), but no indications that the author is aware of the important rôle he played.
page 187 note 1 An Authentic Narrative of the Life of John Newton, written by himself; with a continuation by the Rev. Richard Cecil, Edinburgh 1801Google Scholar.
page 187 note 2 Bull, Josiah, John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth. An Autobiography and Narrative, compiled chiefly from his Diary and other unpublished documents, London 1868Google Scholar.
page 187 note 3 Martin, Bernard, John Newton. A Biography, London 1950Google Scholar.
page 187 note 4 This correspondence is in the custody of Messrs. Maggs Bros., Ltd., London, by whose permission quotations are made.
page 188 note 1 Joseph Jane (1716–95) was instituted vicar on 17 December 1748 after serving curacies at Cowley and St. Thomas, Oxford. Under his ministry St. Mary Magdalene became known as an Evangelical centre (Diocese of Oxford Ordinations, Institutions, Licenses, Resignations, etc., 1733–1802, Bodleian MS. Oxford Diocesan Papers, Book 21, folio. 46v).
page 188 note 2 Joseph Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses, ii. 627.
page 188 note 3 Tyerman, Luke, The Life and Times of John Wesley, Founder of the Methodists, London 1880, ii. 375Google Scholar.
page 188 note 4 Diocese of Oxford, Ordinations etc., Book 21, folio. 47, correcting Venn, J. A. (ed.), Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part ii, 1752–1900, Cambridge 1947, iii. 290Google Scholar, which gives 1755.
page 188 note 5 Oxford Clergy Index.
page 188 note 6 MS. Autobiography of Thomas Haweis, 67. Quoted by permission of the Trustees of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, New South Wales.
page 189 note 1 MS. Letter, 7 February 1763.
page 189 note 2 MS. Letter, 26 September 1763.
page 189 note 3 MS. Letter, 18 July 1763.
page 189 note 4 MS. Letter, 14 August 1763.
page 189 note 5 Martin, op. cit., 180. Samuel Brewer (1723–96), ordained as an Independent minister in 1746, had charge of the congregation at Stepney to which Newton's friend Alexander Clunie belonged (Jenkins, D. E., The Life of Thomas Charles of Bala, Denbigh 1908, i. 59n.Google Scholar; Evangelical Magazine, iv. (1796), 299; v. (1797), 5–18).
page 190 note 1 Henry Crook (17?–1770) was perpetual curate of Hunslet from 1749 and vicar of Kippax from 1758. He was a known Evangelical (Harbury, B., The Christian Merchant, London 1853, 395Google Scholar; Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, ii. 115–18; xxi. 205).
page 190 note 2 Edmund Keene was bishop of Chester from 1752 to 1771, when he was translated to Ely (le Neve, John, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, ed. Hardy, T. Duffus, Oxford 1854, iii. 261–2Google Scholar).
page 190 note 3 Bull, op. cit., 99. The archbishop of Canterbury was Thomas Seeker, formerly bishop of Oxford, elected on 7 April 1758 after the death of Matthew Hutton (le Neve, op. cit., i. 30).
page 190 note 4 Bull, op. cit., 99.
page 190 note 5 Edward Young (1683–1765) was presented to the rectory of Welwyn in 1730 (Dictionary of National Biography, lxiii. 370).
page 191 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 100–1. John Gilbert was archbishop of York from 1757 to 1761 (le Neve, op. cit., iii. 118–19).
page 191 note 2 Martin, op. cit., 189.
page 191 note 3 Bull, op. cit, 101, 103.
page 191 note 4 Ibid., 103.
page 191 note 5 Ibid.
page 191 note 6 Martin, op. cit., 195, from MS. letter of John Newton to David Jennings, 26 January 1760, in Dr. Williams's Library, London.
page 191 note 7 Bull, op. cit., 104; Sibree, John and Caston, M., Independency in Warwickshire, Coventry 1855, 132Google Scholar.
page 191 note 8 Arminian Magazine iv. (1780), 441.
page 192 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 113, 114. Caleb Warhurst (1723–65), of Stockport, Independent minister, ordained in 1756, was pastor of Cannon Street Church, Manchester (Nightingale, B., Lancashire Nonconformity, Manchester 1890, v. 108–16Google Scholar).
James Scott (1710–83), of Berwick-on-Tweed, Independent minister, ordained 1741, served first at Tockholes and then at Heckmondwike as pastor and tutor at the dissenting college there (Nightingale, op. cit., i. 294–5).
page 192 note 2 Bull, op. cit., 116.
page 192 note 3 MS. Letter, 7 January 1763.
page 192 note 4 SirStephen, James, Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, London 1883, 436Google Scholar. Cf. Diary, 8 November 1757: ‘Began to read Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, where I hope I may find my scruples more fully resolved’ (Bull, op. cit., 99).
page 192 note 5 The Works of the Rev. John Newton, Edinburgh 1834, 32Google Scholar.
page 193 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 117–18.
page 193 note 2 MS. Letter, 19 March 1763.
page 194 note 1 MS. Letter, 19 May 1763.
page 194 note 2 Ibid. William Grimshaw died on 7 April 1763. John Wesley dated it as 1762 (The Journal of John Wesley, ed. Curnock, Nehemiah, London 1938, iv. 496Google Scholar). For a discussion of the error, see Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, v. 59.
page 194 note 3 John Richardson was curate to Henry Venn at Huddersfield before succeeding to Haworth (Cragg, George G., Grimshaw of Haworth: a Study in Eighteenth Century Evangelicalism, London 1947, 48Google Scholar).
page 194 note 4 MS. Letter, 7 January 1763.
page 194 note 5 MS. Letter, 26 September 1763.
page 194 note 6 John Edwards (1714–85), of Shrewsbury, was a convert of Whitefield who started an Independent cause in Leeds in 1755 (An Account of the Life, Ministry and Writings of the late Rev. John Fawcett, D.D., London 1818, 36 n.Google Scholar).
page 194 note 7 Titus Knight, a Methodist, was later converted to Calvinistic views. His friend Grimshaw enlisted the aid of Lady Huntingdon to build an Independent Church for him in Halifax (Cragg, op. cit., 100).
page 195 note 1 MS. Letters, 30 December 1763, 31 January and 7 February 1764.
page 195 note 2 MS. Letter, 7 February 1764; Bull, op. cit., 120.
page 195 note 3 Bull, op. cit., 120–1.
page 195 note 4 MS. Letter, 7 February 1764.
page 195 note 5 Moses Browne (1703–87) assisted Madan at the Lock and Jones at St. Saviour's and acted as Chaplain to the duke of Somerset before being presented to Olney. He was admitted as Chaplain to Morden College on 24 June 1763 (Seymour, A. C. H., The Life and Times of Selina Countess of Huntingdon, by a Member of the Houses of Shirley and Hastings, London 1840, i. 127, 164Google Scholar).
page 195 note 6 Thomas Jones (1731–62), a Cambridge graduate, was converted in 1751. He was appointed junior Chaplain of St. Saviour's in 1753 and for several years was the only beneficed Evangelical in the London area. He died on 6 June 1762 (Tyerman, op. cit., ii. 324; Middelton, John White, An Ecclesiastical Memoir of the First Four Decades of the Reign of George the Third, London 1822, 46Google Scholar).
page 195 note 7 MS. Autobiography of Thomas Haweis, 87. Jones's successor was William Day (Thompson, W., The History and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of St. Saviour, Southwark, London 1904, 135Google Scholar).
page 195 note 8 Bryars's will was proved on 12 July 1763 (Principal Probate Registry, London). The dean was Zachariah Pearce, also bishop of Rochester.
page 196 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 103.
page 196 note 2 MS. Letter, 19 May 1763.
page 196 note 3 Seymour, op. cit., ii. 36 n.
page 196 note 4 Bull, op. cit., 121.
page 197 note 1 MS. Letter, 26 February 1764.
page 197 note 2 Bull, op. cit., 121.
page 197 note 3 Ibid., 122, 124. John Green was bishop of Lincoln from 1761 to 1779 (le Neve, op. cit., ii. 28).
page 197 note 4 Martin, op. cit., 198. In an article in The Congregational Quarterly xxix. (1951), 239, Martin refers to Haweis as ‘one of the best friends Newton had amongst Anglicans’ and, as in his book, points out that it was Haweis who suggested Newton for Olney, without apparently being aware of the full story. D. E. Demaray, in a recent unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Edinburgh University, 1952) on Newton does the same.
page 197 note 5 Abbey, C. J. and Overton, J. H., The English Church in the Eighteenth Century, London 1886, 378–80Google Scholar; Balleine, G. R., A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England, London, new ed. 1951, 103Google Scholar.
page 197 note 6 Loane, Marcus L., Oxford and the Evangelical Succession, London 1950, 81–131Google Scholar. Cf. my review in Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, xxviii. 60–1.
page 197 note 7 Stephen, op. cit., 405.
page 197 note 8 Bull, op. cit., 103; Martin, op. cit., 185–8.
page 198 note 1 The Works of Richard Cecil … with a Memoir of his Life, ed. Pratt, Josiah, London 1838, i. 3Google Scholar.
page 198 note 2 Boase, George Clement, Collectanea Cornubiensia: a Collection of Biographical and Topographical Notes Relating to the County of Cornwall, Truro 1890, 335Google Scholar; Morison, John, The Fathers and Founders of the London Missionary Society, London, n.d., ii. 180, has 1763 in errorGoogle Scholar.
page 198 note 3 Thomas Adam (1701–84), rector of Winteringham, near Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, from 1724 to 1784. An Exposition of the Four Gospels, ed. Westoby, A., London 1837, 2 volsGoogle Scholar.
page 198 note 4 Haweis, Thomas, The Evangelical Expositor, or a Commentary on the Holy Bible, London 1765–6, 2 volsGoogle Scholar. The work had previously appeared in parts.
page 198 note 5 MS. Letter, 7 January 1763.
page 199 note 1 The ‘notes on the Fifth Chapter’ mentioned in the Diary (Bull, op. cit., 116) would thus appear to refer to Matthew rather than to Acts.
page 199 note 2 MS. Letter, 18 July 1763, in which Newton said he had made some ‘petty remarks here and there’, and 14 August 1763, in which he confessed: ‘You will perceive that I can be of little service to you as a reviser. But what I can I have attempted’.
page 199 note 3 Bull, op. cit., 120.
page 199 note 4 MS. Letter, 26 September 1763.
page 199 note 5 MS. Letter, 17 October 1763.
page 199 note 6 MS. Letter, 1 November 1763. For this and further details, cf. my article ‘John Newton's Church History’, The Evangelical Quarterly xxiii. (1951), 51–71Google Scholar.
page 200 note 1 Newton, Works, 423–519.
page 200 note 2 Letter of John Newton to Lord Dartmouth, 25 October 1768, in Historical Manuscripts Commission, 15th Report, Appendix Part i, The Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, London 1896, iii. 189Google Scholar.
page 200 note 3 Letter of John Newton to Rev. William Howell, 18 October c. 1790, in Evangelical Magazine 1. (1843), 527.
page 200 note 4 Bull, op. cit., 169.
page 200 note 5 Joseph Milner (1744–97), master of Hull Grammar School, adopted Evangelical views in 1770. He served as vicar of North Ferriby and, for a few months before his death, as vicar of Holy Trinity, Hull (D.N.B., xxxviii. 17; Evangelical Magazine vi. (1798), 133–8; xvii. (1810), 417–23). Volume i of his History appeared in 1794, ii in 1795 and iii in 1797.
page 200 note 6 Stephen, op. cit., 436.
page 200 note 7 Brilioth, Yngve, The Anglican Revival: studies in the Oxford Movement, London 1925, 35Google Scholar.
page 200 note 8 Isaac Milner (1750–1820) was president of Queens' College, Cambridge, and dean of Carlisle, iv. was published in 1803 and v in 1809 (Milner, Mary, The Life of Isaac Milner, London 1842, 231Google Scholar).
page 200 note 9 1826, 1829, 1831.
page 200 note 10 Milner, Joseph, The History of the Church of Christ; from the Days of the Apostles, till the famous Disputation between Luther and Miltitz, in 1520, continued after the same plan by the Rev. Isaac Milner, D.D., F.R.S., with a further continuation to the present times, extracted from the Rev. T. Haweis' Church History, Edinburgh 1841Google Scholar.
page 201 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 116. Was ‘Mr. Fawcett’ Benjamin Fawcett, pastor of the Old Meeting House, Kidderminster? (Urwick, William, Nonconformity in Worcester, London 1897, 209Google Scholar).
page 201 note 2 MS. Letter, 23 January 1763.
page 201 note 3 MS. Letter, 24 April 1763.
page 201 note 4 Newton, John, Letters, Sermons and a Review of Ecclesiastical History, Edinburgh 1780, i. 3Google Scholar.
page 201 note 5 Chambers's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, ed. Patrick, David, revised J. Liddell Geddie, Edinburgh 1938, ii. 614Google Scholar.
page 202 note 1 Bull, op. cit., 124.
page 202 note 2 4 June, according to John Kimpton: see his A Faithful Narrative of Facts relative to late Presentation of Mr. H— to the Rectory of Al-w—le, in Northamptonshire, London 1767, 10Google Scholar.
page 202 note 3 Bull, op. cit., 146.
page 202 note 4 MS. Letter Thomas Haweis to John Newton, 6 October 1798 (in Mitchell Library, Sydney).