The author of The Life of John Newton and the editor of Newton’s Letters (both published by the Trust), Josiah Bull was, from 1833, co-pastor (with his father, Rev. J. P. Bull) of the Independent Church in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire. The notice of his ordination in the Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle for that year notes
a circumstance that added peculiar interest to the services of the day was, that this was the third generation of the same family who had sustained the pastoral relation to this church. Seventy years ago the grandfather, the well-known Rev. W. Bull, was ordained. Thirty-three years since the present Mr. Bull, Sen., was ordained co-pastor with his father, who now has the happiness of seeing his son associated with him in the work of the Lord.
Josiah Bull also compiled Memorials of the Rev. William Bull [the said grandfather] of Newport Pagnel compiled chiefly from his own lettters, and those of his friends, Newton, Cowper, and Thornton (1738-1814), and published by Nisbet in 1864.
