John Venn (9 March 1759 – 1 July 1813) was a priest of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

who was a central figure of the group of religious philanthropists known as the

Clapham Sect The Clapham Sect, or Clapham Saints, were a group of social reformers associated with Clapham in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s. Despite the label "sect", most members remained in the established (and dominant) Church of England, which ...

Life

He was born at

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history ...

to the south-west of central London, while his father Henry Venn was curate there, on 9 March 1759. He entered

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wif ...

, graduated B.A. in 1781, and M.A. in 1784. Venn was rector of

Little Dunham Little Dunham is a village situated in the Breckland District of Norfolk and covers an area of 749 hectares (2.9 square miles) with a population of 309 at the 2001 census. The village lies south of its sister village Great Dunham and by road no ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, from 1783 to 1792, and rector of Holy Trinity Church, Clapham from 1792 until his death. He was one of the original founders of the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

in 1797, and was a leading

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and philanthropist. These evangelistic and humanitarian interests brought him into close association with abolitionists such as

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

and

Granville Sharp Granville Sharp (10 November 1735 – 6 July 1813) was one of the first British campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle black ...

. He ran the school set up by the Society for the Education of Africans which was set up in Clapham in 1799. He died at Clapham on 1 July 1813. A volume of his sermons was published after his death. Some of his friends arranged for the following memorial plaque to be erected on the north side of the church in Clapham: "To the memory of the Reverend John Venn, M.A. for twenty years Rector of this parish. He was the son of the Reverend Henry Venn, Vicar of Yelling; and his progenitors, for several generations, were Ministers of the Church of England. He was endowed by providence with a sound and powerful understanding: and he added to an ample fund of classical knowledge a familiar acquaintance with all the more useful parts of philosophy and science: His taste was simple. His disposition was humble and benevolent. His manners were mild and conciliating. As a Divine, he was comprehensive and elevated in his views, and peculiarly conversant with Theological subjects; but he derived his chief knowledge from the scriptures themselves, which he diligently studied and faithfully interpreted. As a Preacher, he was affectionate and persuasive, intellectual and discriminating, serious, solemn, and devout; anxious to impress on others those evangelical truths which he himself so deeply felt. By his Family, among whom he was singularly beloved, his remembrance will be cherished with peculiar tenderness. Having been sustained, during a long and trying illness, by a stedfast faith in that Saviour whom in all his preaching he laboured to exalt, he died 1 July 1813, aged 54 years, leaving to his surviving family and flock an encouraging example of the blessedness of those who embrace with their whole hearts the religion of Jesus Christ." John is remembered (with Henry and Henry the younger) in the

with a

commemoration Commemoration may refer to: *Commemoration (Anglicanism), a religious observance in Churches of the Anglican Communion *Commemoration (liturgy) In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, a commemoration is the recital, within the Li ...

on 1 July.

Family

Venn married first, at Trinity Church, Hull, on 22 October 1789, Catherine (1760–1803), only daughter of William King, merchant, of

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south- ...

. By her he had sons Henry Venn, and John, for many years vicar of St. Peter's,

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester, England, Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. ...

; also five daughters, of whom Jane, the second, married James Stephen, and was mother of

James Fitzjames Stephen Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, Stephen achieved prominence as a philosopher, law ...

and

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellect ...

; and Caroline married Stephen Ellis Batten and was mother of Emelia Russell Gurney. He married, secondly, on 25 August 1812, Frances, daughter of John Turton of Clapham. Venn was the father of Henry Venn (1796-1873), honorary secretary of the

, and grandfather of logician and philosopher

John Venn John Venn, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923) was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing Venn diagrams, which are used in l ...

, who compiled a family history in 1904.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Michael M. Hennell, ''John Venn and the Clapham Sect'' (London: Lutterworth Press, 2003). . * Nigel A. D. Scotland, ''Evangelical Anglicans in a Revolutionary Age 1789-1901'' (Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster Press, 2004). * Stephen Tomkins, ''The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce's Circle Transformed Britain'' (Oxford: LionHudson, 2010). . * Rev. John Venn, ''Sermons'', 2 Vols (London: Ellerton and Henderson, 1814)
Vol 1
an
Vol 2
* ''als
Internet archive
' (grandson) ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Venn, John 1759 births 1813 deaths 18th-century English Anglican priests 19th-century English Anglican priests English evangelicals Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Evangelical Anglican clergy Anglican saints