two loyalist Venns in the great rebellion are briefly
commemorated in Walker's 'Sufferings of the Clergy.' The first Venn who
is more than a name was a Richard Venn, who died in 1739. His name
occasionally turns up in the obscurer records of eighteenth-century
theology. He was rector of St. Antholin's, in the city of London, and
incurred the wrath of the pugnacious Warburton and of Warburton's friend
(in early days) Conyers Middleton. He ventured to call Middleton an
'apostate priest'; and Middleton retorted that if he alluded to a priest
as the 'accuser,' everyone would understand that he meant to refer to
Mr. Venn. In fact, Venn had the credit of having denounced Thomas
Bundle, who, according to Pope, 'had a heart,' and according to Venn was
a deist in disguise. Bundle's reputation was so far damaged that his
theology was thought too bad for Gloucester, and, like other pieces of
damaged goods, he was quartered upon the Irish Church.

Richard Venn married the daughter of the Jacobite conspirator John
Ashton, executed for high treason in 1691. His son Henry, born March 2,
1724, made a more enduring mark and became the chief light of the
movement which was contemporaneous with that led by Wesley and
Whitefield, though, as its adherents maintained, of independent origin.
He was a sturdy, energetic man. As a boy he had shown his principles by
steadily thrashing the son of a dissenting minister till he became the
terror of the young schismatic. He played (his biographer says) in 1747
for Surrey against all England, and at the end of the match gave his bat
to the first comer, saying, 'I will never have it said of me, Well
struck, Parson!' He was ordained a few days later, and was 'converted by
Law's "Serious Call."' While holding a curacy at Clapham he became a
friend of John Thornton, father of the better known Henry Thornton. John
was a friend of John Newton and of the poet Cowper, to whom he allowed
money for charitable purposes, and both he and his son were great lights
at Clapham. From 1759 to 1771 Venn was vicar of Huddersfield, and there
became famous for eloquence and energy. His 'Complete Duty of Man'--the
title is adopted in contrast to the more famous 'Whole Duty of Man'--was
as the sound of a trumpet to the new party. For three generations it was
the accepted manual of the sect and a trusted exposition of their
characteristic theology. Venn's health suffered from his pastoral
labours at Huddersfield; and from 1771