HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [243 



BISHOP NEWTON. 



THOMAS NEWTON, the son of John Newton, wine-merchant, 

 was born in Lichfield, on the 1st of January 1707. He received 

 the rudiments of his education in the free grammar-school of his 

 native city, and in the tenth year of his age was removed to 

 Westminster School, where he continued six years, five of which 

 he studied as a King's scholar in the College. In 1723 he went to 

 Cambridge, and entered at Trinity College, where he resided 

 eight months in the year, till he had taken his degree of Bache- 

 lor of Arts. He was afterwards chosen Fellow of his College, 

 and ordained Deacon in December 1729, and Priest in February 

 1730. He then went to London, the great scene for the display of 

 genius, and was appointed Curate of St. George's, Hanover 

 Square. In this church he continued for several years to officiate 

 as assistant preacher to Dr. Trebeck, and at length obtained the 

 preferment of reader and afternoon preacher at Grosvenor Chapel, 

 in South Audley Street, where he soon became distinguished for 

 the eloquence and perspicuity of his sermons, and was patronized 

 by the Earl of Bath, who nominated him his first chaplain, and 

 presented him to the rectory of St. Mary-le-Bone in 1744. In the 

 memorable year 1745, when the whole kingdom was agitated by 

 the Scotch rebellion, and party-spirit assumed a fierce and malig- 

 nant character, Mr. Newton distinguished himself as a strenuous 

 champion for the House of Brunswick, and an enemy to popery, 

 and obtained much celebrity by the explicit and determined man- 

 ner in which he asserted the cause of his Church and King. His 

 enemies had recourse to the dastardly expedient of anonymous 

 threatening letters, which must have given him some uneasiness, 

 as he shewed them to his patron Lord Bath, who advised him to 

 transmit them to the Secretary of State. Here the matter rested, 

 for the ill-concerted rebellion was soon quelled, and public tran- 

 quillity restored ; but the zeal of Doctor Newton, for he had taken 

 the degree of D. D. was not forgotten. In 1747 he was chosen 

 Lecturer at St. George's, Hanover Square, and the same year he 

 married a daughter of his former coadjutor Dr. Trebeck. He 

 preached and published a pathetic sermon on the death of Frede- 

 rick Prince of Wales, which obtained him the appointment of 

 Chaplain to the Princess Dowager. 



