till near his death (June 24,
1797) he was rector of Yelling, in Huntingdonshire. There his influence
extended to the neighbouring University of Cambridge. The most eminent
Cambridge men of the day, Paley, and Watson, and Hey, were tending to a
theology barely distinguishable from the Unitarianism which some of them
openly adopted. But a chosen few, denounced by their enemies as
methodistical, sought the spiritual guidance of Henry Venn. The most
conspicuous was Charles Simeon (1759-1836), who for many years was the
object of veneration and of ridicule for his uncouth eloquence in the
pulpit of Trinity Church. Even to my own day, his disciples and
disciples' disciples were known to their opponents as 'Sims.'[28]

John Venn, son of this Henry Venn, born at Clapham in 1759, was brought
up in the true faith. He was a pupil of Joseph Milner, elder brother of
the more famous Isaac Milner, and was afterwards, like his father, at
Sidney Sussex College. Simeon was one of his intimate friends. In 1792
Venn became rector of Clapham; and there provided the spiritual food
congenial to the Thorntons, the Shores, the Macaulays, the Wilberforces,
and the Stephens. The value of his teaching may be estimated by any one
who will read three volumes of sermons published posthumously in 1814.
He died July 1, 1813; but his chief claim to remembrance is that he was
the projector and one of the original founders of the Church Missionary
Society, in 1799, which was, as it has continued to be, the most
characteristic product of the evangelical party.'[29]

John Venn's children were of course intimate with the Stephens. In later
life the sons, Henry and John, had a great influence upon my father;
Henry in particular was a man of very remarkable character. He was
educated by his father till 1813, when he was sent to live with Farish,
then Lucasian professor and resident at Chesterton, close to Cambridge.
He was at Queen's College, then flourishing under the patronage of
evangelical parents attracted by Milner's fame; was nineteenth wrangler
in 1818, and for a time was fellow and tutor of his college. In 1827
Wilberforce gave him the living of Drypool, a suburb of Hull, and there
in 1829 he married Martha, fourth daughter of Nicholas Sykes, of
Swanland, Yorkshire. In 1834 he became vicar of St. John's, Holloway, in
the parish of Islington. About 1838 he became subject to an affection of
the heart caused mainly by his efforts in carrying his wife u