1015 



NEWTON, REV. JOHN. 



HENDEL, JAMES MEADOWS. 



1016 



the island of Benanocs, S.E. of Sierra Leone. During the fifteen 

 months he remained here, he suffered dreadfully from sickness and 

 ill-treatment, but he was at length found by the captain of an African 

 ship who had been commissioned by his father to make inquiries after 

 him, and restored to his friends. His father however he did not sec 

 again : ho had been appointed governor of York Fort in Hudson's Bay, 

 where he died in 1750. 



It was in May 1748 that young Newton returned to England. _ By 

 this time his character had undergone a great change. His loneliness 

 and sufferings in Africa had rendered him serious : a storm which 

 occurred on his passage home, and during which the ship was in immi- 

 nent peril, had deepened his seriousness into strong religious convic- 

 tion. So high an opinion had his conduct on this voyage raised of 

 his character and ability, that the owner of the vessel immediately 

 offered him the command of another Guinea ship, but he declined 

 the offer, preferring to serve at least another voyage as mate. He now 

 devoted the whole of his leisure to self-improvement. Whilst in Africa 

 he had one book Euclid's Elements ; and, drawing the diagrams on 

 the sand with a stick, he had made himself master of the first six 

 books ; during this voyage he succeeded in teaching himself the rudi- 

 ments of Latin, and the leisure hours of subsequent voyages enabled 

 him to obtain considerable proficiency in that language, and to acquire 

 much general information. AH this time his religious impressions 

 were deepening, and having escaped from many remarkable perils, he 

 became convinced that he was the special object of a superintending 

 providence. While master of a ship he established and himself regu- 

 larly conducted public worship twice every Sunday. 



In all, Newton was captain of a Liverpool slave-ship about four 

 years; and he confesses that "during all the time he was engaged in 

 the slave-trade, he never had the least scruples as to its lawfulness ; " 

 but an increasing dislike to the occupation led him, on being prevented 

 by a serious illness from sailing (Aug. 1754) with his ship, to look 

 about for another employment. Through the interest of a friend he 

 obtained the post of surveyor in the port of Liverpool in August 1755. 

 He now laid aside his Latin and mathematical studies, and devoted all 

 his spare hours to become acquainted with the Scriptures in the 

 original languages, and succeeded in acquiring some facility in Greek 

 and Hebrew, and a slight knowledge of Syriac : he also read largely 

 theological works in Latin, English, and French. Associating much 

 with those who were strongly influenced by the religious movement 

 originated by Wesley and Whitefield, Newton was led by his zeal arid 

 energy to take a prominent part in their meetings for prayer and 

 mutual exhortation. His addresses proving unusually acceptable, he 

 was encouraged to offer himself (Dec. 1758) as a candidate for holy 

 orders, and a curacy was obtained for him. The Bishop of Chester 

 readily countersigned his testimonials, but the Archbishop of York 

 (Dr. Gilbert) refused his assent, " his grace being inflexible in support- 

 ing the rules and canons of the Church." The rebuff in nowise abated 

 Newton's zeal. To show how he would have preached had he been 

 ordained, he published (1760) a volume of ' Six Discourses,' and in 

 1762 a series of ' Letters on Religion,' under the signatures of Omicron 

 and Vigil, which had extensive popularity at the time, and have been 

 very often reprinted. He now began to turn his thoughts to the 

 ministry among the Dissenters, but several 'evangelical' clergymen 

 urged him to make another effort to obtain episcopal ordination. He 

 was presented to the curacy of Olney, and in April 1764 ordained by 

 the Bishop of Lincoln. Much public attention was called to the affair, 

 and he was a few months later induced to allow Dr. Haweis to publish 

 an ' Authentic Narrative of some Remarkable and Interesting Particu- 

 lars in the Life of the Rev. John Newton,' which he had written shortly 

 before. 



Newton remained nearly sixteen years at Olney. The stipend of 

 the curacy was only 301. a year, but he had some means of his own, 

 and, as Southey observes, "his zeal and his genius, aided by the 

 remarkable story of his life, had rendered him a conspicuous personage 

 in what is called the religious world." Mr. Thornton, a wealthy 

 London merchant of similar opinions (whose name is well known from 

 Cowper's Correspondence), wrote to him on his removal to Olney, 

 " keep an open house for such as are worthy of entertainment : help 

 the poor and needy," and added, " I will statedly allow you 200. a 

 year, and readily send whatever you may have occasion to draw for 

 more." Thus supported, Mr. Newton was able to give effect alike to 

 his zeal and his benevolence. He soon became the recognised leader 

 of those, both lay and clerical, in that part of the country who par- 

 ticipated in his views. It was in order to have the benefit of his 

 ministry and friendship that Cowper, with Mrs. Unwin, removed to 

 Olney. It may be doubted whether Newton's treatment of the poet's 

 mental hallucination was the most judicious, but there can be no 

 doubt of the kindness and purity of his intentions, or of the admira- 

 tion and friendship with which he regarded the poet personally. The 

 poet, as is well known, looked up to Newton with veneration as well 

 as esteem. In all, Cowper spent more than twelve years in daily 

 intercourse with Newton at Olney, and part of the time, during one 

 of his terrible attacks of insanity, in Newton's house. Together they 

 composed the ' Olney Hymns,' in which Cowper first appeared before 

 the world as a poet, and when he published his first volume of poems, 

 Cowper begged Newton to introduce them to the world with a preface. 

 In 1779 Mr. Newton was presented by his friend, Mr. Thornton, to 



the valuable living of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, with which was 

 united that of St. Mary Woolchurch, and there he spent the remainder 

 of hia days, one of the most popular preachers and writers, and one 

 of the most influential members of the so-called Evangelical section 

 of the Church in the metropolis. He continued to preach with little 

 abatement of vigour till he was turned of eighty, and he died Dec. 21 , 

 1807, aged eighty-two. Besides the works above mentioned, he pub- 

 lished a volume of letters which rivalled his Omicron Letters in popu- 

 larity, under the title of ' Cardiphonia, or the Utterance of the Heart 

 hi the course of a real Correspondence ; ' a volume entitled ' A Review 

 of Ecclesiastical History,' 8vo, 1770; 'Letters to a Wife,' 8 vo, 17l3, 

 and numerous sermons, tracts, &c., all of which were collected and 

 published after his death under the general title of ' Works of the 

 Rev. John Newton,' of which a second edition, in 6 vols 8vo, appeared 

 in 1816. 



(Newton's Narrative; Cecil, Life of Newton; Southey, Life of 

 Cowper ; Ne^vton's Works, &c.) 



* PARKES, JOSIAH, was born in Warwick in 1793, and received 

 his education under the elder Dr. Charles Burney at Greenwich. He 

 adopted the profession of a civil engineer. In 1839 he was appointed 

 by the Board of Trade one of two commissioners to inquire into the 

 causes of steam-vessel accidents, and the means of prevention ; on 

 which he made a report, which was printed in the same year by order 

 of the House of Commons. In 1846 he was appointed draining 

 engineer to the office of Woods and Forests, and in 1856 to a similar 

 office under the Board of Works. As a draining engineer, Mr. Parkes 

 has conducted some of the largest public and private works in this 

 country ; and his eminent success has given a great impulse to this 

 practice, by which the value of land and its productiveness have been 

 so largely increased. In 1821 Mr. Parkes published a work ' On the 

 Means of Consuming the Smoke of Steam-Engines and other Furnaces.' 

 During the years 1839-42 he communicated to the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers valuable papers, ' On Steam-Enginea,' ' On Steam-Boilers,' 

 and the ' Percussive Action of Steam,' which were published in the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Institution, and the gold and silver medals were 

 awarded to him for them. In 1848, in vols. v. and vii. of the 'Journal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,' he published ' Essays 

 on the Philosophy aud Art of Land Drainage,' and ' On Climate, Soils, 

 &c.,' which also appeared as a distinct work, and which has been 

 translated into most European languages. 



* PARKES, JOSEPH, the brother of the preceding, was born at 

 Warwick, in January 1796. He was educated partly at the same 

 school with his brother, then under the Rev. Allen Wheeler, canon of 

 Worcester, and in 1811-12 studied at Glasgow University. He adopted 

 the law as a profession, and practised as a solicitor at Birmingham 

 with great success. During his residence at Birmingham he became 

 remarkable for his advocacy of those social and political changes which 

 constitute so important a feature in the history of the last quarter of 

 a century. During the great struggle for parliamentary reform, no 

 man exercised a greater influence upon popular opinion, or contributed 

 more to the success of that measure by a most strenuous co-operation 

 with its advocates in the two Houses. In 1833 he gave up his business 

 in Birmingham, on being appointed secretary to the Royal Commissions 

 for Inquiry into the Municipal Corporations of England and Wales, 

 and on their Boundaries. He was afterwards solicitor to the Charity 

 Commission Chancery Suits ; and to the Births, Deaths, and Marriages 

 Registration Public Office. In 1847 he was appointed a Taxing Master 

 in Chancery, an office which he still holds. He has published, ' A 

 History of the Court of Chancery,' 8vo, 1828 ; ' The Equity and Real 

 Property Laws of the United States of North America,' 1 vol. Svo, 

 1830 ; ' The Governing Charters and Municipal History of Warwick; ' 

 ' The Claim of the Subscribers of the Birmingham and Liverpool Rail- 

 Road to an Act of Parliament, in reply to the Opposition of the Canal 

 Companies,' Svo, 1825 ; ' The Prerogative of Creating Peers,' Svo, 

 1830 and 1856 ; ' The State of the Courts of Requests and Criminal 

 Jurisdictions of Birmingham and Warwickshire, with complete tables 

 of local Education and Crime,' 1828. He has also contributed 

 various articles to the Retrospective, London, and Westminster 

 Reviews. 



RENDEL, JAMES MEADOWS, a civil engineer of great eminence, 

 was born in 1799, at a village on the borders of Dartmoor, iu Devon- 

 shire ; his grandfather, Mr. Meadows, was a well-known architect, and 

 his father, who was a county surveyor and farmer, was a man of 

 ability, excellent common sense, and determination of character, qua- 

 lities which descended to the son, whilst to his mother, who was a 

 woman of considerable acquirements, he owed the rudiments of hia 

 early education. After being practically instructed in the executive 

 part of his profession, he went to London and obtained an engagement 

 under Mr. Telford [TELFOKD, THOMAS], by whom he was employed on 

 the survey and experiments for the proposed Suspension bridge over 

 the Mersey at Runcorn, and subsequently on the survey and con- 

 struction of roads in the north of Devon, where the difficulties he had 

 to contend with contributed much to create that self-reliance so useful 

 to him in his subsequent career. In 1822, he had occasion to apply, 

 on a professional subject, to the late (John, first) Earl of Morley, who, 



