 John Newton (1725–1807) was the founder.They are described by the historian Stephen Tomkins as "a network of friends and families in England, with William Wilberforce as its centre of gravity, who were powerfully bound together by their shared moral and spiritual values, by their religious mission and social activism, by their love for each other, and by marriage".Evangelicalism was a major force in the Anglican Church from about 1800 to the 1860s.