Henry Venn (Clapham Sect)

Henry Venn
Henry Venn
	1770 by Mason Chamberlin the elder
Born	1725; Barnes, Surrey
Died	1797; Yelling, Huntingdonshire
Nationality	English
Occupation(s)	Evangelical minister ; Author
Known for	Founder of the Clapham Sect

Henry Venn (1725 in Barnes, Surrey, England – 1797), was an English evangelical minister and one of the founders of the Clapham Sect, an influential evangelical group within the Church of England.

Life

He was the third son of Richard Venn, vicar of St Antholin, Budge Row in London. He was educated at the University of Cambridge from 1742, studying at St John's and then Jesus College where he was a Rustat scholar. He graduated B.A. in 1745 and M.A. in 1749. He also played cricket, for All England against Surrey.^[1]

In 1749 Venn was ordained as a priest in the

High Church views of The Whole Duty of Man to the more evangelical position of A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. In 1754 he became curate of Clapham and was also elected lecturer of St Swithin, London Stone and St Alban, Wood Street

.

From 1759 to 1771, Venn was vicar of

Huddersfield Parish Church.^[3] He found a small group of like-minded Yorkshire clergy: Richard Conyers, William Grimshaw of Haworth, James Stillingfleet.^[4] In 1771 he exchanged to the living of Yelling, Huntingdonshire^[3] where he drew as visitors William Faris, Joseph Jowett, Thomas Robinson and Charles Simeon.^[1]

He died in the rectory, and is commemorated by a plaque over the pulpit of the parish church.

Henry is

commemoration on 1 July.^[5]

Works

Venn was well known as the author of The Compleat Duty of Man (London, 1763), a work in which he intended to supplement the teaching embodied in the anonymous

Whole Duty of Man from an evangelical perspective.^[3]

Family

He married (1757) a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Bishop, D.D., a divine of Ipswich. Henry Venn's descendants also came to prominence over the succeeding generations. His son

Church Missionary Society

(CMS).

His granddaughter, by his eldest daughter Eling, was Charlotte Elliott, writer of numerous hymns, most notably '"Just as I Am". Her brothers were clergymen Edward Bishop Elliott and Henry Venn Elliott,

A grandson, also named

Christian missions made widespread by the Lausanne Congress of 1974. A great-grandson was the logician and philosopher John Venn, famed for the Venn diagram

.

References

^
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28184. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

^ "Henry Venn (VN742H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Venn, Henry". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 1007–1008.
^ Venn, John (1904). "Annals of a clerical family, being some account of the family and descendants of William Venn, vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621". Internet Archive. London: Macmillan. p. 90. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

[ODNB-1] 
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28184. (Subscription or UK public library membership
required.)

[2] "Henry Venn (VN742H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[EB1911-3] One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Venn, Henry". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 1007–1008.

[4] Venn, John (1904). "Annals of a clerical family, being some account of the family and descendants of William Venn, vicar of Otterton, Devon, 1600-1621". Internet Archive. London: Macmillan. p. 90. Retrieved 19 January 2016.

[5] "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.

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