Some years after experiencing a conversion to Christianity, Newton later renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism.

Now an evangelical, he was ordained as a Church of England cleric and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades and wrote hymns.

[4] Newton spent two years at a boarding school, before going to live at Aveley in Essex, the home of his father's new wife.

[6] Following that disgrace and humiliation, Newton initially contemplated murdering the captain and committing suicide by throwing himself overboard.

Later, while Harwich was en route to India, he transferred to Pegasus, a slave ship bound for West Africa.

"[b] Early in 1748, he was rescued by a sea captain who had been asked by Newton's father to search for him, and returned to England on the merchant ship Greyhound, which was carrying beeswax and dyer's wood, now referred to as camwood.

He awoke to find the ship caught in a severe storm off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland and about to sink.

Partly due to the influence of his father's friend Joseph Manesty, he obtained a position as first mate aboard the slave ship Brownlow, bound for the West Indies via the coast of Guinea.

[14] After Newton moved to the City of London as rector of St Mary Woolnoth Church, he contributed to the work of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, formed in 1787.

In it he states, "So much light has been thrown upon the subject, by many able pens; and so many respectable persons have already engaged to use their utmost influence, for the suppression of a traffic, which contradicts the feelings of humanity; that it is hoped, this stain of our National character will soon be wiped out.

"[15] On 12 February 1750, Newton married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, at St. Margaret's Church, Rochester.

Eventually, in 1764, he was introduced by Thomas Haweis to The 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, who was influential in recommending Newton to William Markham, Bishop of Chester.

As curate of Olney, Newton was partly sponsored by John Thornton, a wealthy merchant and evangelical philanthropist.

In 1779, Newton was invited by John Thornton to become Rector of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, London, where he officiated until his death.

Young churchmen and people struggling with faith sought his advice, including such well-known social figures as the writer and philanthropist Hannah More, and the young William Wilberforce, a member of parliament (MP) who had recently suffered a crisis of conscience and religious conversion while contemplating leaving politics.

The younger man consulted with Newton, who encouraged Wilberforce to stay in Parliament and "serve God where he was".

The volume included Newton's well-known hymns: "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken", "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds!

Many of Newton's (as well as Cowper's) hymns are preserved in the Sacred Harp, a hymnal used in the American South during the Second Great Awakening.

Easily learnt and incorporating singers into four-part harmony, shape note music was widely used by evangelical preachers to reach new congregants.

It was later described as "written in an easy style, distinguished by great natural shrewdness, and sanctified by the Lord God and prayer".

[25] Newton became an ally of William Wilberforce, leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish the African slave trade.