Olney Hymns - Newton and Cowper's Personal Background

Newton and Cowper's Personal Background

John Newton was an only child, and was a self-educated sea captain, at one time captaining slave ships. Newton's conversion occurred during a violent storm at sea on 10 March 1748. Newton describes the event in his autobiography, An Authentic Narrative (published 1764), and thereafter marked the anniversary of his conversion as a day of thanks-giving. This incident revived Newton's belief in God and, despite considerable reservations from within the established church (it took six years to be ordained into the Church of England), he achieved the position of priest to the village of Olney in 1764. Newton's apparent influence and charisma proved beneficial to him and his parish when local Evangelical merchant, John Thornton, to whom he had sent a copy of his autobiography, offered the parish £200 per year, requesting that Newton, in part, provided for the poor. This annual contributing ceased when Newton left in 1780 when he took the position of Rector at St. Mary Woolnoth, in London. Newton's epitaph on a plaque in St. Mary Woolnoth, written by Newton himself, bears these words:

William Cowper was the son of an Anglican clergyman and well-educated at Westminster School. Cowper was liable to bouts of severe depression throughout his adult life, and during a period in an asylum he was counselled by his cousin, Martin Madam, an Evangelical clergyman. His new enthusiasm for Evangelicalism, his 'Conversion', his and his move to Olney in 1767 brought him into contact with John Newton. Cowper eventually became an unpaid curate to Newton's church, helping with the distribution of Thornton's funds.

Cowper is best known, not just for his contribution to the Olney Hymns, but as a poet, letter-writer, and translator: his works include The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782), The Task (1785) and his translation of Homer, published in 1791. Cowper left Olney for nearby Weston Underwood in 1786.