'Amazing Grace' - the story of a song Quiz

Answer: Sailor

Newton's father had been a sailor and he accompanied him on voyages from the age of 11 until his father retired. Newton was subsequently pressed into service with the Royal Navy, before entering the slave trade and rising to captain his own ship. He left the seas in 1755 through illness and worked for a time as surveyor of the tides and inspector of ships in Liverpool. Earlier, in 1748, Newton was on a ship struck by a storm.

He later recalled that at one point he said "If this will not do, the Lord have mercy on us" For the rest of his life he marked that day as a turning point when "I began to know there is a God that hears and answers prayers."

Answer: Olney, Buckinghamshire

Initially, the Archbishop of York refused Newton's requests for ordination, but the Bishop of Lincoln then ordained him. It is said that so popular was his preaching that the church at Olney had to be enlarged. In 1780 he became rector of St Mary Woolnoth in Woolwich.

Answer: He was treated like a slave by an African Princess

Newton worked successfully with a slave trader called George Clow along the Guinea Coast, but Clow's mistress, the daughter of an African chief and a Princess in her own right, took a dislike to him. She had Newton clapped in chains and starved. A biographer, Jonathan Aitken, noted that Newton probably would have died had it not been for the kindness of other slaves.

In a BBC documentary, Aitken said: "The first people to show Grace to Newton were actually Africans who were themselves in slavery.

He always said it was the worst moment of his life and he kept an inscription on his vicarage wall to remind him that he had been a bondsman, which was another way of saying he had been a slave" A sea captain who had known his father rescued Newton after two years.

Answer: 1 Chronicles

The hymn developed from a sermon preached by Newton on New Year's Day in 1773. He did not, though, call it 'Amazing Grace', but published it as 'Faith's Review And Expectation'. Newton probably wrote a hymn every week.

Answer: New Britain

Newton wrote the words but not the music. They have been sung to a number of tunes over the years. Initially, the hymn would have been sung unaccompanied. Newton also disliked intricate musical arrangements. An American called William Walker is credited with marrying the now-familiar tune with the words in 1835.

The melody came from another hymn. 'Amazing Grace' was sung to at least 24 tunes in 19th century. It's even been sung to the melody of 'House Of The Rising Sun'.

Answer: Judy Collins

In the UK alone, the Judy Collins song was in the charts for 67 weeks, reaching number five at its highest point. It was also a Top Twenty hit in the USA. Indeed, 'Amazing Grace' was more popular in North America that in the United Kingdom until Collins and other folkies picked it up in the 1960s. Collins first sang it as part of an encounter group that met at St Paul's Chapel at Columba University.

Her producer insisted it should go onto an album. She later recalled "I was in such a bad state, I had all this sucess but I really was an example of the 60s gone crazy".

Answer: Alice's Restaurant

It appears in both choral and instrumental forms. 'Alice's Restaurant', released in 1969, starred Arlo Guthrie and was based on his anti-draft song of the same name. Guthrie recorded 'Amazing Grace' several times.

Answer: Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe included it in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. The hymn was a favourite for both opposing armies during the American Civil War.

Answer: The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards

The RSDG version of the song was at the top of the British hit parade for five weeks in 1972. Some experts believe that the tune we now use was of Scottish or Irish origin and it has the hallmarks of a melody written for the bagpipes. Twenty-three policemen and 343 firefighters died in the terrorist attack on New York City on September 11 2001.

Answer: Cherokee

The Cherokee version was a metaphorical translation rather than a literal translation of Newton's words. The 'Trail of Tears' was the name given to the forced eviction of settled Cherokees from their land in Georgia in 1838. An estimated 4,000 Cherokees lost their lives during the 1,000-mile march to Oklahoma.

When one of the Cherokees died, anyone who stopped to bury them was shot. The Cherokees themselves called it "Nunna daul Tsuny" (The Trail Where They Cried).

Answer: 1,800

Artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Yes, Rod Stewart and Arlo Guthrie have recorded the song. A recording of 'Amazing Grace' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Rick Wakeman, whose television documentary on the song was one source for these questions, also recorded a version.

Answer: How Sweet The Name Of Jesus Sounds

Newton considered hymns a way of getting across a message in a simple-to-understand way. Some were topical reactions to the events of the time. He was an admirer of that other great hymn writer, John Wesley, and collaborated with the poet William Cowper in several publications.

Answer: William Wilberforce

Born in 1759, Wilberforce was at an early age exposed to the music of John Wesley and the creed of Methodism. After university, he entered politics and was elected Member of Parliament for Hull. His religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity set him on a course of social reform.

In 1789, he made his first speech against the slave trade. His first Bill to abolish the slave trade, in 1791, was defeated by 163 votes to 88. He persisted with his campaign, though, and in 1805 the British House of Commons passed a bill making it illegal for any British subject to transport slaves.

However, the upper house, the House of Lords, initially prevented the bill becoming law and it was not until 1807 that it passed both Houses to become law. However, while the trade in slaves was unlawful, slavery itself was not and Wilberforce believed they should remain slaves.

He wrote in 1807 "It would be wrong to emancipate (the slaves). To grant freedom to them immediately, would be to insure not only their masters' ruin, but their own.

They must (first) be trained and educated for freedom." Wilberforce died in July, 1833. A month later, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed and gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.

Answer: A life of joy and peace

Originally Newton's version contained six verses, though only the first three remain in the song we sing today. Other writers and singers have put their own stamp on the theme by adding their own verses. The lines 'I once was lost but now am found/Was blind but now I see' have been adopted to refer to many human frailties.

Answer: False

Newton was a captain of slave ships, and continued in this occupation even after his moment of religious revelation. He kept a journal in which he recorded his journeys, the number of slaves purchased and the punishments handed out. He thought that his Christian responsibilities meant that he just had to treat the slaves well. Later in life, he began to question these beliefs and became a strong opponent, even publishing a pamphlet attacking the slave trade.

He gave William Wilberforce encouragement and vital background information. Newton, a hugely popular preacher, was a key ally of Wilberforce and his testimony influenced many others on a subject that they perhaps had never considered before.