If the Lord [my] our Leader be. J. Newton. [Jacob's Ladder.] Josiah Bull, in his John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth, 1868, says, under date of June, 1774:—
"Writing about this time to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Cunningham, who had removed to Scotland, he sends her a copy of his hymn, entitled ‘Jacob's Ladder,' saying, ‘Your removal led my thoughts to the subject of the following hymn, and therefore you ought to have a copy.'" (2nd ed. p. 202.)
In 1779, the hymn was given in the Olney Hymns, Bk. i., No. 9, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, with the title “Jacob's Ladder." It is found in a few modern collections in America.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)