21 December 1807 The Times DIED At his house in Coleman-street-buildings, aged 82, the Rev. John Newton, Rector of the United Parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth, and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, of which parishes he had been Rector 28 years. His unblemished life, his amiable character, both as a man and as a Minister, and his able writings, are too well known to need any comment. advert placed 23 December 1807   Newton's epitaph (written by himself, engraved by John Bacon jnr, RA) JOHN NEWTON, CLERK,  Once an Infidel and Libertine,  A servant of slaves in Africa ,  Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour  JESUS CHRIST,  Preserved, restored, pardoned,  And appointed to preach the Faith  He had long laboured to destroy,  Near 16 years at Olney in Bucks;  And [27] years in this church.    On Feb. 1, 1750, he married  MARY, Daughter of the late George Catlett,  Of Chatham .  He resigned her to the Lord who gave her,  On 15th December, 1790.   St Mary Woolnoth Register   1807 December On Monday evening the twenty-first day of this month the Revd John Newton, the Rector of these united parishes, departed this life in the eighty-third year of his age having been upwards of twenty-eight years Rector. The last time he officiated in this church was Sunday evening October 5th 1806, and the last time he was at divine worship in it was Sunday morning January 4th 1807. He was born in London July 24 1725 OS, was presented to this church by the late John Thornton Esqr of Clapham in the County of Surrey, inducted December 8th 1779 and entered on a glorious immortality about a quarter past eight in the evening of the twenty-first day of this month December, and being dead he yet speaketh. Remember them who have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever!   His mortal remains were deposited in the chancel vault of this church on December the thirty-first, the service being read according to his own desires, by his friend the Revd Henry Foster AM, minister of St James Clerkenwell, and a funeral sermon preached at this church on Sunday morning January 3rd 1808 by the Rev Richard Cecil AM, minister of St John’s Chapel Bedford Row Thos Batt, Parish Clerk  Josiah Pratt, Curate and Lecturer John Piper's [Newton!] Bicentenary Blog     Funeral Sermon for Newton by Richard Cecil [extract]   And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Luke 12:42,43.   Thus acted your late minister, as a good steward of the manifold grace of God… I think I may assert, without fear of contradiction from such as knew the character of your late minister, that no man ever executed his office with a more single eye, or a more disinterested [impartial] heart. This thing was not done in a corner, or in the presence of two or three interested witnesses, but it was done in the centre of the largest city in the world. Olney Bicentenary Service