Amazing Grace

Lore & Background

John Newton was born in 1725 in Wapping, London. His mother, a devout Independent, died when he was six, and he was raised by a distant stepmother and mistreated at boarding school. At age eleven he joined his father at sea, beginning a career marked by headstrong disobedience. He was pressed into the Royal Navy, deserted to visit his love Mary "Polly" Catlett, and was traded to a slave ship. He became notorious for profanity and was himself enslaved by the Sherbro people in Sierra Leone before being rescued. In March 1748, while aboard the ship Greyhound, a violent storm battered the vessel so severely that Newton called out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion. He later studied Christian theology and became a British abolitionist.

Reader's Guide

Newton was ordained in the Church of England in 1764 and became curate of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote hymns with poet William Cowper. "Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773 and debuted in print in 1779 in Olney Hymns. It settled into relative obscurity in England but was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early United States. The hymn has been associated with more than 20 melodies; in 1835 it was joined to the tune "New Britain," to which it is most frequently sung today. American historian Gilbert Chase called it "without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns," and biographer Jonathan Aitken estimates it is performed about 10 million times annually. It became newly popular during the 1960s revival of American folk music and has been recorded thousands of times.

Did You Know?

• Newton wrote "Amazing Grace" to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773.
• The hymn debuted in print in 1779 in Newton and Cowper's Olney Hymns.
• It was joined to the tune "New Britain" in 1835, the melody most commonly used today.
• Newton was himself enslaved by the Sherbro people of modern-day Sierra Leone before his conversion.