Amazing Grace, 1779 (hymn)

 

"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 by the English clergyman John Newton. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God.

 

Childhood & Early Life

1725 24^th July. Born in Wapping, London, to a Christian mother who taught him faith and a Puritan seafaring father.

1732 Suffered the loss of his mother to tuberculosis just before turning seven, ending his early religious instruction.

1736 Went to sea for the first time at age 11 with his father, beginning a harsh transition into adulthood.

1742 Abandoned the Christian faith of his childhood, developing a reputation for rebellious behavior, profanity, and dense skepticism.

 

Sailor Career & The Slave Trade

1743 Forced into military service by being impressed into the Royal Navy aboard HMS Harwich.

1745 Relegated to a passing slave ship after attempting to desert the Navy; he was later abandoned in West Africa and spent over a year abused and effectively enslaved under a native duchess.

1747 Rescued from West Africa by a sea captain sent by a friend of his father.

1748 Experienced a profound spiritual awakening on March 10 while steering the battered merchant ship Greyhound through a near-fatal North Atlantic storm.

1750 Married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, and returned to the ocean.

1750–1754 Captained three distinct commercial voyages trafficking enslaved Africans, initially seeing no conflict between his growing faith and the slave trade.

1754 Suffered a sudden medical stroke, forcing him to abruptly retire from active seafaring and the slave trade forever.

 

Clergy & Abolitionism

1755–1760 Worked as a Surveyor of Tides in Liverpool while teaching himself Latin, Greek, and theology.

1764 Ordained as a Church of England priest and appointed curate of the parish in Olney, Buckinghamshire.

1773 Wrote the lyrics to the hymn "Amazing Grace" (originally titled "Faith's Review and Expectation") to accompany his New Year's Day sermon.

1779 Co-published the highly influential Olney Hymns collection and relocated to London to become the rector of St Mary Woolnoth.

1785 Mentored the young politician William Wilberforce, successfully encouraging him to stay in politics to fight for systemic moral reform.

1788 Published a stark, highly public essay titled Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade, repenting of his past and detailing the horrors of the trade.

1807 21^st Dec. Passed away at age 82 in London, living just long enough to see the British Empire pass the Slave Trade Act of 1807 which outlawed the slave trade.

 

“Amasing Grace”
1773 John Newton wrote the lyrics of the hymn "Amazing Grace" (originally titled "Faith's Review and Expectation")

1779 15, February.  (First Publication) The lyrics were first published in London in the Olney Hymns, a collection co-created by John Newton and William Cowper. The hymn appeared under the original title "1. Faith's Review and Expectation" based on 1 Chronicles 17:16–17.

1835 September. (The Melody Addition) The lyrics were first formally joined to the "New Britain" melody and published in William Walker's The Southern Harmony in the United States. This is the crucial moment the modern song was born.

1910 (The Modern Standard) The final structural change occurred when an American producer named Edwin Othello Excell published the song in Coronation Hymns. He kept the first three verses, dropped Newton's final verses, added the "Ten thousand years" stanza, and arranged the definitive choral harmony used today.