 In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people, but later returned to sea and was the captain of slave ships.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 clergyman and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades.