Newton's Epitaph

John Newton wrote his own epitaph, and it may be read on a plain tablet near the vestry door at his Church of St. Mary Woolnoth in London. He wrote:

John Newton, Clerk,
Once an infidel and libertine,
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior
JESUS CHRIST,
Preserved, restored, pardoned,
And appointed to preach the faith,
Near sixteen years at Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty-seven years in this Church.
On February 1, 1750 he married
MARY,
Daughter of the late George Catlett,
of Chatham, Kent,
He resigned her to the Lord Who gave her,
On the 15th day of December 1790.

In a follow up letter to his executors, Newton said, "And I earnestly desire that no other monument and no inscription but to the purpose, may be attempted for me."