Researching John Newton

Newton went to sea at a young age and worked on slave ships in the slave trade for several years. In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people. He was rescued, returned to sea and the trade, becoming Captain of several slave ships. After retiring from active sea-faring, he continued to invest in the slave trade. Some years after experiencing a conversion to Christianity, Newton later renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism. Now an evangelical, he was ordained as a Church of England cleric and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades. He also wrote hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken".

Newton lived to see the British Empire’s abolition of the African slave trade in 1807, just months before his death.

Parson Weems has Sgt. Newton bravely save a group of American prisoners from execution by capturing their British guards at the 1779 Siege of Savannah. However, no contemporary account of this rescue exist, and the only source is the very unreliable Parson Weems. In fact, according to Lieutenant Colonel Peter Horry, who took part in the campaign, "Newton was a Thief & a Villain."

Sgt. Newton's tale is similar to the true story of Sergeant William Jasper, who was a genuine hero but was exaggerated by Weems. Several states have a Newton and Jasper county adjacent to each other, as though they were regarded as a pair. Several other states have a Jasper County with a county seat of Newton, or vice versa.

He was the son of Hibbert Newton and Hannah Adams, the daughter of John Adams. Newton served as collector of impost and excise at Halifax and as a justice of the peace. He was married twice: first to Margaret, the daughter of Benjamin Green (Margaret is buried in the Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)), in 1759 and then to Catherine, the daughter of Philip Augustus Knaut, in 1775. His seat in the assembly was declared vacant in 1772 due to non-attendance.

His brother Henry also served in the assembly and married a daughter of Benjamin Green.

While many other members of Australian parliaments (MPs) have simultaneously served in wars, Newton's tenure was unusual because he was: both preselected and elected while he was overseas; one of only a few serving members of Australian parliaments to fly on combat operations; neither sworn in, nor able to sit in parliament, and; killed in action while he was an MP.

Born in Lofthouse in Yorkshire, Newton began work in tailoring at the age of 21. He won awards for his cutting and design skills, but increasingly came to focus on trade unionism.

Newton was elected as the president of the Middlesbrough branch of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW) in 1939, he was elected to the union's executive council in 1943, then became assistant regional organiser for the North of England in 1947 and then regional organiser in 1948. In 1952, he was elected as the union's general secretary, taking over from Anne Loughlin the following year. He also served as president of the International Textile and Garment Workers' Federation from its formation, then as the first president of the new International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, standing down in 1972.

Newton resigned as secretary of the NUTGW in 1968, citing the pressure of work. He also served on the executive council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), and was President of the TUC in 1969.