Ne'wton, Richard, D.D., a noted English divine, was descended from a family that had long been of con- siderable repute and of good fortune. His father en- joyed a moderate estate at Lavendon Grange, in Buck- inghamshire, which is now in the family. Richard Newton was born at Yardley Chase, in Northampton- shire, in 1676. He was educated at Westminster School, and elected from that foundation to a scholarship of Christ Church, Oxford, where he afterwards taught with great acceptability and honor. He became M.A. on April 12, 1701, and B.D. on March 18, 1707. He was inducted principal of Hart Hall, by Dr. Aldrich, in 1710, where he undertook the degree of D.D. on December 7 of that same year. Dr. Newton was next called into lord Pelham's family to superintend the education of the late duke of Newcastle, and his brother, Mr. Pelham, who ever retained (as many letters now extant show) a most affectionate regard for him ; but being a man of too independent and liberal principles to solicit favors for himself, he never mot with any return for his sed- ulous attentions to them until 1752, when he was pro- moted to a canonry of Ciirist Church. Some time prior he had been inducted by bishop Compton into the liv- ing of Sudbury, in his native county, and he hold this living some time after he assumed the principalship of Hertford College, which he filled until his death, April 21, 1753. Newton was honored with the esteem of his contemporaries, and was conceded tii 1)0 as polite a schol- ar and as ingenious a writer as any of that age. In close- ness of argument and perspicuity and elegance of lan- guage he had not his equal. Never did any private person engage in more trusts, or discharge them with greater integrity. He was a true friend to religion and education, a man of exemplary piety and extensive charity. No one man was called forth so often to preach in the latter end of queen Anne's time and in the begin- ning of that of king (ieorge I as Dr. Newton. During his residence in the rectory at Sudbury he discharged all the parts of his oflice as parish minister with exemplary care and fidelity. Among other particulars, he read the evening praj-ers of the liturgj^ at his church on the week-day evenings at seven o'clock, hay-time and har- vest excepted, for the benefit of his parishioners. As
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principal of Hart Hall he labored faithfully for its pros- perity, ami ill 1740 obtained a charter to convert the school into a college, and thus became the founder, at a considerable expense to himself, of Hertford College, as the institution was named. He obtained great aid from his numerous friends, but contributed himself about £1000 at least, which he derived from a publication of his entitled Theophrastus. The famous Dr. Conybeare, rector of Exeter College, afterwards dean of Christ Church and bishop of Bristol, opposed Dr. Newton's project of obtaining a charter; and never, perhaps, were two people better fitted for a controversy, which de- serves as much to be collected for the language as Ju- nius's letters. Upon his death-bed Dr. Newton ordered all his writings to be destroyed, excepting a select number of his sermons, which were published in 1784; a few others had already been published during liis life- time. He also had published A Scheme of Discipline, etc., at Hart Hall (Loud. 1720) : — Unicersity Education (ibid. 1726 and 1733, 8vo) : — Pluralities Indefensible (ibid. 1743). A second edition of his Pluralities Inde- fensible, which was published in answer to the learned Wharton on Pluralities, appeared in 1744. Dr. Newton has not been, and probably never will be answered. The Characters o/' Theophrastus, with a strictly literal translation of the Greek into Latin, etc., with notes and observations on the text in English, was published from his MSS., as arranged before his death, for the benefit of Hertford College, bj' his successor in the principalship of that high school in 1754. See Hook, Eccles. Biog. vii, 406-408; Chalmers's History of Oxford; London Gentlemaii's Magazine, 1792; General Biog. Diet, xi, 216-220. (J.H.W.)
Newton, Robert, D.D., a Wesleyan preacher greatly noted for his popular oratory, was born at Koxby, Yorkshire, of poor but pious parents, Sept. 8, 1780. He was early brought under the influence of the Methodists, but Avas not converted until seventeen years of age, when, after nine weeks of great mental anguish, he experienced deliverance by Christian faith. In 1798, though pos- sessed of but a limiteil education, he was received by the British Conference. In 1803 he was appointed to the Glasgow Circuit, and at the same time attended lectures on theology and philosophy at the University of Glas- gow. While he received liis appointments regularly from the Conference, most of his time was spent in Eng- land and Scotland. His appointment, in 1812, to London brought the extraordinary pulpit talents which he pos- sessed more prominenth' before the public. He there became intimately associated with Butterworth and Coke in behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society. During the rest of his life Robert Newton was the most popular advocate of missions in England. When he began his missionarj' labor there were but fifty Wesleyan missionaries, with seventeen thousand communicants ; he soon increased them to more than three hundred and fifty missionaries and one hundred thousand communi- cants. The demand for his services became universal throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland. In Eng- land and Scotland he was eminently successful, especially in Sheffield, where it is said he broke the spell of Paine's influence which then prevailed among the working classes. During his labor of forty years he probably addressed from year to year a greater number of people than an)' other man of his time. For forty years he was known in all the cities and large towns of England, and his coming was always hailed with great jileasure by the people. He was four times elected president of the British Conference, and for many years acted as its secretarj'. In 1839 he was sent as a delegate by the British Conference to the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, and during his visit to this coun- try his popularity as a speaker was so great that he at- tracted vast crowds whenever he preached. He died April 30, 1854. He was the author of Sermons on Special and Ordinary Occasions, edited, with a Preface, by Rev. James R. Rigg, D.D. CLond. 1853, 8vo) ; these.