The Cowper and Newton Bulletin: Vol 2 No 1

Thanks to the generosity of Judge Thomas Martin, his wife Bonnie and his sister, Helen Martin, Charles and I were given the opportunity to go to America for a week, the highlight of which was to be the official opening of the new John Newton Center

The John Newton International Center for Christian Studies, to give it its full title, and to quote Tom Martin:

... is intended to provide a witness to the faith of eighteenth-century English evangelicalism in our modern world. It hopes to accomplish this goal by providing a suitable residence for scholars dedicated to research and publication, a forum for lectures open to the region's academic community, and a setting for local university students to escape the routine of their campuses and find edifying fellowship, printed resources, and a setting for prayer, Bible study, and singing.

We had met the Martins before as they are regular attendees at the annual Cowper Days here in Olney, a lovely warm-hearted Christian family. They had also kindly invited Marylynn Rouse, the author, in order for her to publicise her forthcoming work publishing ALL Newton's works, many unknown before Marylynn's researches. The project will run to fourteen volumes and it is to be published by Samford University in America. So it was arranged we would all fly together non-stop from Heathrow to Philadelphia.

We decided to travel Wednesday to Wednesday to avoid any jet-lag problems for the Great Day! It was going to be a big adventure for me as I had never flown long distance.

We all stayed with Helen in her attractive home on the family farm. Helen is a warm, thoughtful hostess, who guided us around her locality in the two days before the opening of the John Newton Center. I was particularly interested in the Amish people and their way of life.

(The evening before, Marylynn and I had each given talks in Helen's Church. Marylynn told the story of John Newton in a power-point presentation and I spoke about the Olney John Newton would have known, illustrated with slides of old prints. Both presentations were well received by the audience of about 60 people.)

On the Saturday we had an early start for Carlisle, which is about 90 miles away from where we were staying. On the way we picked up two friends of Helen's and the two vehicles drove in convoy through the flat fertile Amish farmland, heading westwards along Pike and Toll roads. We crossed the Susquehanna River and were now into wooded ridge and valley country. We were due to dine at a restaurant in Carlisle at 2pm, but as we arrived half an hour early, we drove to see the John Newton Center. I was expecting a tall tenement-type building, but it is a delightful white-painted boarded house with verandah on the corner of two streets.

They already had the Olney flag flying (the Town Council had presented the Martin family with it when they called at the Museum in December) and were just about to fix up the banner from Olney's former John Newton Centre, given to them at the above meeting. I got very excited seeing these two gifts from home flying in America. Then there, inside the hall on the mantlepiece, was the photograph of the Cowper and Newton Museum, also given in December. I began to feel really at home. We had a quick look inside the new centre where they were getting ready for the evening reception. The large downstairs rooms were tastefully decorated and then into the room walked Dr Bruce Hindmarsh. I knew him immediately and he recognised me. He is still the good-looking Canadian I first knew ten or twelve years ago, when he was doing his thesis research at the Museum for his doctorate at Oxford. This thesis became a book, and I had brought my copy with me for him to sign. He wrote a few words, and then said, "I could write so much more, I still have a file of all the research work you helped me with." It was just as well I was sitting down as my legs went quite weak!

Bruce joined us for dinner along with Dr John Bombaro, who is the resident director of the centre, and his wife Melinda, who is expecting their first child in May. We were joined later by Tom and Bonnie, and Charles Morris, the producer of a Christian Radio Station, who wanted to interview Dr Hindmarsh, who is regarded as the leading authority on John Newton in North America (as Marylynn is in England).

Dr Hindmarsh, as the James M. Houston Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology of Regent College, Vancouver, BC, Canada was to give the Dedicatory Lecture at the official opening at 6pm. As so many people had indicated they wished to attend, a Lecture Theatre had been made available in the Law School opposite the new centre. The Welcome was given by Dr John Bombaro, and prayers were said by Dr Hoffman of Carlisle.

It was now my turn to stand up and offer Greetings from Olney, particularly from the Cowper and Newton Museum. I let the audience into a little secret regarding the research Bruce Hindmarsh had done at Olney over a decade ago. One of John Newton's notebooks was not dated and as Bruce was keen to know the date of the details contained in it, he thought he could date it from the watermark in the paper. Unfortunately this watermark was right under the stitched centre of the notebook—so we unstitched the pages, obtained the information he wanted and then carefully sewed it up again!

Charles, as a former Town Councillor, then offered Greetings from Olney Town Council and the Parish Church, telling everyone of the Newton Project in Sierra Leone. It was Marylynn's turn next to talk about the state of Newton scholarship and Newton's Bicentennial Anniversary plans.

For his Dedicatory Address, Dr Hindmarsh chose the title '"I am a sort of Middle-man": The Generous Evangelicalism of John Newton (1725-1807)'. He gave a very learned discourse for about an hour on the eighteenth-century free-thinking Christians who put the Gospel first, and the Spirit before flesh, and who were very conscious of domestic hospitality and Christian friendship. My ears pricked up when he said the cell group was at the heart of the religious revival then, as we have cell groups in our church today. He stressed that Newton was seeking to maintain a deeper solidarity through the Gospel. I did not take many notes, as I was hoping for a transcript afterwards, but Bruce was not releasing it as he hopes to publish it later.

Afterwards at the Forum for questions, one of them related to John Newton and the lacemakers who attended his weekly Prayer Meetings, so Bruce looked across at me and said, "I think Elizabeth can answer that one". So I had to get to my feet and respond. The lady who had asked the question was sitting directly behind me.

After the singing of 'Amazing Grace', the proceedings ended and as I turned around to speak again to the lady behind me, she suddenly said "I know you - you told me all about lacemaking - in the Museum at Olney - when we visited Olney while living at Oxford." I couldn't believe it! Here I was in America talking to someone I had already met at home! Though she remembered me, I didn't recall her face. However, we chatted on for so long, then met our hosts for that night, that we didn't get into the 'official' photograph reproduced below.

By the time we made our way back to the John Newton Center the reception was in full swing. I went around handing out packs of information about Olney to anyone I thought would be interested, including the producer, Charles Morris. At one point, I spotted Bruce Hindmarsh in a corner on his own, so went and had a chat about his growing family and his Bucks connections, for while doing his research he had rented a cottage in Lavendon. As we left the Center that night Dr John Bombaro said he was very keen to maintain and improve upon the links between their John Newton Center and the Museum, to our mutual benefit, through publicity and regular contact between the two establishments. It is a contact I look forward to maintaining.

Another highlight of the visit was the chance to go to Princeton University's Firestone Library to see some of John Newton's original letters. I will never forget the thrill of reading a letter from John Newton to William Cowper in 1767 about the possibility of Mrs Unwin and Cowper renting a house at Emberton. I casually turned the sheet over and there on the other side was the address: