John Venn

1759-1813. The son of Henry Venn,* born shortly before the latter's institution at Huddersfield, he was educated at Cambridge, became rector of Little Dunham, Norfolk, in 1783, and by Charles Simeon's* instrumentality, became rector of Clapham in 1792. The Thorntons, Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay were among his parishioners, and he became virtually chaplain to the Clapham Sect* of Christian political activists. He took an active part in the formation of the Church Missionary Society, carried the main burden of its administration in its early years, and drafted some of the normative memoranda and reports. His health, always bad, required his resignation of these duties in 1808.