[citation needed] Mary and Thomas Winslow lived in England and Octavius was born in Pentonville, then a village near London, on 1 August 1808.

While staying in Twickenham, a nurse accidentally administered an incorrect medicine that doctors would later say would have killed ten men[citation needed].

Octavius's father was from a wealthy family but by 1815, following his retirement from the army, he suffered ill-health and the loss of his fortune due to one of several national financial disasters that occurred in this period.

Widowed at 40, responsible for a large family, and scarcely settled in America, Mrs Winslow's entire life was turned upside down.

They were a deeply religious family and Octavius later wrote a book about their experiences from his mother's perspective entitled Life in Jesus.

Family historian D. Kenelm Winslow recorded their plight: Mary had the youngsters out on the streets of New York selling matches and newspapers as soon as they were old enough for such tasks.

She set them to any job they could tackle, gathering them around her at night for scripture reading followed by a good sound evangelical harangue and prayers.Mary and her children lived in New York City until 1820.

In 1824, they would move back to New York City for a season of "special revival" where brothers Octavius, Isaac, and George would become converted and later convinced of God's calling to ministry.

Winslow was saved under the ministry of Samuel Eastman, pastor of Stanton Street Baptist Church in New York City.

Mary later wrote: My children are earnestly engaged in bringing sinners where the Holy Ghost is displaying His mighty power.

They had 10 children: His son, John Whitmore Winslow, died in 1856 at age 21 and Octavius went on to publish some of the things he had written as a teenager.

This latter event probably marks a changing attitude in Winslow who in 1867 left the Baptist pastorate and in 1870 was ordained an Anglican deacon and priest by the Bishop of Chichester.

He was buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery alongside his wife Hannah Ann Winslow and his sister Emma who died on 21 December 1890 at the age of 78.