5    3 January [1795] [1]   


[to Mr Ring, Surgeon, Reading][franked with a Thornton signature, 'London Three Jany 95']
 
My dear friends,
 
Mrs Sheppard [2] had just left the door yesterday, when it occurred to me, what a nice opportunity of sending a few of my Anniversaries [3] to Reading, I had let slip. But if they reach you safely by this post, it will make no great difference. I can find you a few more if wanted, but I was not willing to overload the frank.
 
I can do little more than enclose them, being much engaged. Besides you owe me a letter. Miss Catlett joins me in love and best wishes to you and yours, and to all our kind friends at Reading.
 
Through mercy, we and our family are in tolerable health, and peace. I never was better. I preached four times this week, since Sunday, and seem as stout and strong for tomorrow, as if I had not preached at all. Notwithstanding all this, I am near 70 years of age. I am going, going, just a-going. [4] The wheels of time, the Carriage which is bearing me to my journey’s end, how swiftly they roll? It is yet day with us, as to this life, that is, our opportunities of adorning our profession, and being useful in our places are still prolonged. But the word speaks to me that are [sic] Old, and likewise to you that are Young - Work while it is day for the night cometh. [5] May our Lord find us so doing – so watching, waiting, longing for his appearance, that his approach may be a joy and not a surprise to us.
 
May the Lord bless you both, and make this year, the happiest year you have seen. Pray for us, and believe me to be
 
Your affectionate and obliged friend
 
John Newton
 
No. 6     3 January [1795]
 

Endnotes:
 
 [1] The previous month, on 5 December 1794, the accounts of Thomas Ring’s uncle John Ring of Basingstoke show that the Revd Mr George Austen (1731-1805), rector of nearby Steventon, bought ‘a small mahogany writing desk with one long drawer and glass ink stand complete’ for 12 shillings. This is reputed to have been a gift for his 19-year old daughter Jane Austen (1775-1817), who in 1796 wrote her first novel at this desk. It was later published as Pride & Prejudice. The desk is on display at the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library.
[2] Mrs Sheppard may be related to the Rev John Shepherd (1752-1840), curate to the rector William Bromley Cadogan at St Giles, Reading, in 1791. Newton’s Travel Diary, MS 2942, on 13 August 1793 while staying with Ambrose Serle: ‘A visit from Mr Sheppard’.  He met the Rings there the following day for the first time when they came to dinner. On his return from Southampton he had stayed with Serle again from 18 September, when  the Rings again arrived for dinner a couple of days later. On Saturday 21st he went to stay with the Rings in Reading, preached twice at St Giles on Sunday  and on Monday went to tea with Mr Sheppard. Newton to Hannah More (1745-1833) 12 December 1798: ‘The afternoon lectureship of St. Giles-in-the-Fields is vacant. The candidate most likely to have the majority of votes is a Mr Sheppard, who was some time Mr Cadogan’s curate at Reading.’ As the Bishop did not know Sheppard, Newton wanted to put in a word for him to the Bishop but felt his intervention inappropriate. ‘But if you, my dear madam, when you write to him, should choose to mention Mr Sheppard’s application as a piece of the news of the day and that your correspondent JN assured you that he has known Mr S several years and believes him to be an upright moderate man, a good and diligent preacher, and a firm friend to our constitution in church and state, it might, perhaps, have a good effect towards fixing such a man in a pulpit, where the afternoon congregation is between two and three thousand.’ Shepherd got the lectureship and held it for more than 40 years! However, it seems this was not due to Hannah More, for she wrote to William Wilberforce on 18 December 1798: ‘Good old Newton has written to me to write to the Bp of London in favour of a Mr Sheppard who was Curate to Cadogan and who is Candidate for the Lectureship of St. Giles. Now I do not care to do it, as I never heard so much as the name of Mr Sheppard.’ MS Wilberforce c. 3, ff. 45-6. Shepherd was also the minister of the Proprietary Chapel in Queen’s Square, Westminster at least during 1808-1820.
[3] Newton’s ‘Anniversaries’ (of which he printed a few for circulation to close friends) were his hymns written on the anniversary of his wife’s death, 15 December 1790. This would have been the 4th anniversary hymn, which begins:
Forget her! No – Can four short years
The deep impression bear away?
She still before my mind appears,
Abroad, at home, by night, by day.
In a letter written to his wife on 16 May 1754 while at sea, he had stated: ‘There is indeed one trial, to which I always stand exposed; should this come, my heart and conscience give me cause to fear that, not only moral arguments, but the poor attainments I have made in religion, would fail, unless I was immediately strengthened from above. And I humbly trust I shall be, if ever I am called to a scene, which at present, overpowers my spirits when I but transiently think of it. Yes, God would enable me to resign you also! He has promised strength according to our day; and he is compassionate and faithful.’
Reflecting on this on 15 December 1794, he wrote alongside in his own edition of Letters to a Wife: ‘This one trial I have since experienced – And I did not sink, for in the time of my trouble, when I called upon Thee, my Lord, Thou didst hear me and strengthen me with strength in my Soul. I set up my Ebenezer this Morning. I praise thee for sparing her to me so long, for making her so valuable to me, for preserving our mutual affection unabated. I thank thee for her gentle dismission at last. I praise for the merciful alleviations and favours which Thou hast afforded me since our separation – especially for the peace and comfort of my domestic life, the affection and attention of my dear Child, and my kind Servants.’
[4] This appears to have an auctioneer’s cry: ‘going, going, just a-going’. Thomas’s uncle John Ring of Basingstoke was an auctioneer.
[5] John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Newton often reminded Wilberforce of this verse.

Acknowledgements:
Descendants of Sophia Ring
British Library
Lambeth Palace Library