![]() Having been appointed Tide Surveyor at Liverpool, he entered on the duties of the position, in August 1755, and held it nearly nine years. A third voyage had been determined on, but, on the eve of sailing, an apoplectic attack intervened, and the sea was finally abandoned. Newton was a slave-trader, and in his two voyages carried probably not less than 500 Africans into West Indian slavery. Two voyages as master, to Africa and the West Indies, closed, August 1754, his life at sea. After his return, he was married, February 12, 1750, to Miss Catlett, whom he had never ceased to love devotedly since their first meeting seven years before. Newton made another voyage, as mate, to the African coast. His father, before his return, had gone out to Hudson’s Bay, as Governor of York Fort, and soon after died. He reached home in May 1848-no longer an infidel, but a Christian by conviction. It brought him to prayer, and to repentance. On the way home, they were overtaken by a storm that nearly sank the poor unseaworthy craft. Informing his father of his condition, he was released (1748) from his misery, and taken on board a vessel commissioned to call for him. Entering into the service of a slave-dealer, on one of the Plaintain Islands, he suffered incredible hardships, and was reduced to the lowest straits. At Madeira, he was transferred from the Harwich to a vessel bound for Sierra Leone in Africa. He had become an infidel, and now threw off all restraint. In 1745, he deserted the ship at Plymouth, was brought back, degraded, ironed, and flogged. Influence was used, and he was promoted to the quarter-deck as a midshipman. After a short stay on shore, he was impressed and taken as a sailor on board the war-ship Harwich. A voyage to Venice followed and, at the expiration of a year, he returned to England. Mary, the eldest daughter, scarcely fourteen, so charmed the young rover, that the three days were prolonged to three weeks, and the ship sailed without him. George Catlett-relatives of his deceased mother. At the age of fifteen he was placed, with good prospects, at Alicante, Spain, but through his unsteadiness he lost his position.Ī place was offered him in Jamaica, and in December 1742, previous to the sailing of the ship, he made a three days’ visit to Chatham, in Kent, to see the family of Mr. At eleven, his father took him to sea, which he followed for four years. In his ninth year, he was sent to a boarding-school in Essex, and made some progress in Latin. His father married again the following year, but the stepmother took little heed to the boy’s character. Till then, his training was of the most godly sort. ![]() ![]() She died when he was but seven years old. His mother, Elizabeth, was connected with the Independent Church under the care of the Rev. ![]() His father, John, had been trained at a Jesuit College in Spain, and for many years was master of a ship in the Mediterranean trade. JOHN NEWTON was born in London, England, July 24, 1725. ![]()
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