Born at "Springfield", his father's
Prince Edward County, Virginia plantation, Venable graduated from
Hampden–Sydney College in 1816. Venable studied medicine for two years before turning to law. Venable later graduated from
Princeton University in 1819 and was admitted to the bar in 1821. Venable practiced law in
Virginia in both
Prince Edward and
Mecklenburg counties until 1829 when he moved to
North Carolina. Venable later got involved in politics and served as a presidential elector in the elections of
1832,
1836 and
1844 and was elected to the
30th Congress as a
Democrat, serving from 1847 to 1853. Venable lost reelection in 1852. Venable was an elector in the
1860 United States presidential election on the Democratic ticket for
John C. Breckinridge and
Joseph Lane. Venable delivered some college addresses, including at Princeton in 1851 and at Wake Forest in 1858. When Virginia declared secession from the
United States, Venable joined the
Confederacy and was elected to the
Provisional Confederate Congress. Venable was later elected to the
First Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. Venable died in
Oxford, North Carolina, in 1876 and was interred at Shiloh Presbyterian Churchyard in
Granville County, North Carolina. Like many other members of the Venable, Watkins, and Daniel families (including Nathaniel Venable and Elizabeth Venable,) he was an ancestor of Isabelle Daniel Hall Fiske (Barbara Hall), the cartoonist, artist, and co-creator of
Quarry Hill Creative Center in Vermont (founded 1946 and still extant). He was an enslaver. ==References==