Venn, HENRY, an eminent English evangelical, was born of a clerical family at Barnes in Surrey, March 2, 1724. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, taking his degree in 1745, and became Fellow of Queen's College in 1749. After holding several curacies he was appointed to that of Clapham in 1754, but resigned in 1759 to become vicar of Huddersfield in Yorkshire, whence in 1771 he removed to the vicarage of Yelling in Huntingdonshire. He died in the house of his son, John Venn, rector of Clapham, June 24, 1797. The holiness of his life, his broad sympathies, and earnest zeal gave him wide influence even in that barren and unspiritual age. He was an indefatigable preacher, often delivering as many as ten sermons a week. His two books were The Complete Duty of Man (1763) and Mistakes in Religion (1774).
His Memoir by his son, together with his Correspondence, was edited by his grandson, the Rev. Henry Venn (1834). See Bishop Ryle's Christian Leaders of the Last Century (1869), and the study by W. Knight (1881).