John Newton - The Aftermath: First Mate on a Slave-ship August 1748 - December 1749

Newton wrote three times to his father while in Ireland but fate intervened and they would never see each other again. Captain Newton had been appointed Governor of Fort York, Hudson Bay and was shortly due to sail. John was going with him if he could get to England before his father sailed but circumstances prevented this. However, Captain Newton did give his blessing to John's hope of marrying Polly Catlett. Three years later Captain Newton drowned in swimming accident, just a day before he was due to return home.

When young Newton - he was just 23 - returned to England he first went to see Joseph Manesty, the Liverpool merchant owner of the 'Greyhound'. He created such a good impression that Manesty offered him a command. After consideration Newton declined on the grounds that he needed more experience of command and accepted instead the post of first mate under Captain Hardy, of the 'Brownlow', a slaver.

He had also at this time gone to London to call on the Catlett family. It wasn't a great success. Polly now 20, was polite but not exactly overjoyed to see him and he was by all accounts tongue-tied. However he poured his heart out in a letter and begged 'a little of your charity, one morsel for God's sake, before I am quite starved.' He ended it, 'Dear Polly Your most faithful and ardent admirer and servant, J. Newton'.

Not having enough money to travel by coach or even carrier, he walked back to Liverpool in a state of dejection. Shortly after arriving he received a cautious, non-committal letter from her but at least it wasn't an outright rejection.

During the voyage to West Africa Newton began to study Latin using the few books on board, including Castalio's Latin Bible and one of Horace's Odes in a magazine.

On arriving in Sierra Leone Newton's job was to go by open boat along the river estuaries buying slaves. This was not without risk; he buried some seven of his crew, struck down by tropical diseases, and he himself had a recurrence of fever. For eight months he went about this task in inclement weather. He wrote to Polly in March 1749,

Every day the weather grows worse: violent squalls of wind and prodigious thunder and lightning are bringing in by degrees the heavy rains which last almost incessantly from about the end of this month until August.

During this time he revisited the Plantains, calling on Clow and P.I. in quite different circumstances than formerly.

Another example of his amazing luck occurred when the 'Brownlow' was almost ready for her voyage to the West Indies. Now Newton's task was to take firewood and water on board, using the by now almost rotten longboat. He was about to go on another trip when the Captain called him back on board and without any explanation sent another to do this duty. All he said was 'I have taken it into my head that you shall remain today in the ship'. The next morning news reached them that the longboat had sunk in the night and the substitute had drowned. Both Captain Hardy and Newton were much struck, Hardy saying, 'I had no reason for countermanding you but that it came suddenly into my mind to detain you!'

Nor was the voyage to Antigua uneventful. Some slaves broke out and a crewmember was killed by a marlinspike. The rest of the crew fired from the rigging, killing about four of the unarmed Africans. The mutineers were punished in the manner of the day and they sailed on from Antigua to Charleston, South Carolina. This proved a bad investment since the mortality rate among the slaves began to increase with the additional length at sea. The 'Brownlow' lost 62 out of 218. Newton might have found God, but he had, as yet, no doubts about his occupation.

On returning to Liverpool Manesty offered Newton a command for the next sailing season, which he now accepted. He wrote to Polly and accepted an invitation to visit. He was received in the usual friendly way and managed to summon up the courage to propose. Polly refused him not once but twice, finally accepting him when some days later he proposed for the third time. They were married on 1st February 1750.

They got off to a shaky start. Polly was diffident and reserved and John had to come to terms with the reality, not the dreams he had had since he was 17. But soon he could write to her, 'the prospect cleared up and by quick stages I attained that consciousness of your affection which I would not exchange for empire or the riches of the whole globe'.

Joan McKillop
March 05

Sources

• Newton, Rev. John: 'An Authentic Narrative', London 1764
• Cecil, Rev. Richard: 'The Life of John Newton' edited by Marylynn Rouse, Rosshire Christian Focus 2000
• Pollock, John: 'Newton The Liberator', London Hodder & Stoughton 1981