June 15, 1743

Henry Newman (November 10, 1670 to June 15, 1743.) is a little known figure whose piety still left a mark on the 18th century. He wrote two almanacs: Harvard's Ephemeris (1690) and News from the Stars (1691).

According to his ODNB article:

In 1703 Newman became a corresponding member for Newfoundland of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), founded by Dr Thomas Bray, and in 1708 was appointed its secretary. He was suited for the post. He knew Latin and French, [and] his American connection was valuable when the society was extending its work across the Atlantic....

The American connection refers to the fact Newman was born in Massachusetts. "His grandfather was a puritan divine who emigrated from England to Massachusetts about 1636." Newman attended Harvard and afterwards worked at that institution as a librarian. His sympathy for the Anglican perspective grew in his adulthood. He moved to England in 1703.

What promoting Christian knowledge meant in 18th century England can be seen from this excerpt:

Through his correspondence Newman succeeded in putting into effect the society's decisions. He dealt with many subjects as the society's activities steadily widened. While its original purpose, as he explained, was ‘to encourage the erection of charity schools and to disperse good books’...., it was led into other enterprises, which often caused Newman serious problems. Notable was his failure to induce Anglican missionaries to go to India, which caused the society to support German Lutherans there despite high-church criticism.
In addition, Newman's philanthropic concern led him to support such causes as Thomas Coram's Foundling Hospital and James Oglethorpe's settlement of Georgia. He served also as colonial agent for New Hampshire from 1709 to 1720, representing the colony's interests to the British government, especially in its lengthy boundary dispute with Massachusetts.

What emerges from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article on Henry Newman is a picture of a gentle intellectual fellow. In their words:

Newman was a modest, retiring man and avoided prominence for himself. He was unmarried and content with his canaries and his cats. He clearly joined in the discussion at the society's meetings, but he never referred in the minutes to any view expressed by himself; and he did not leave London to visit any of the society's members in their homes. His main task was to engage in the correspondence concerned with the society's interests. In his first five years he wrote more than 6000 letters, besides making abstracts of all the letters the society had received. The drafts of his letters have been preserved in the SPCK's archives. They provide nearly all the information about him and a full account of the work of the society during those years.

He did his job well.