The son of
John Venn, rector of
Clapham, and grandson of
Henry Venn, he was born at Clapham on 10 February 1796. He matriculated at
Queens' College, Cambridge in 1814, graduated B.A. as nineteenth
wrangler in 1818, and was elected a Fellow of his college in January 1819. He graduated M.A. in 1821 and B.D. in 1828. He was a close friend of
Charles Simeon, a founder of the Church Missionary Society in 1799. He was ordained a
Church of England deacon in 1819, and priest in 1821, and soon afterwards took the curacy of
St Dunstan-in-the-West. In practice it was a sole charge. He returned to Cambridge in 1824, where he was a lecturer, and then a tutor. He was
proctor in 1825, and for a short time evening lecturer at
Great St Mary's. In 1827 he was appointed by an old friend of his family, named Wilberforce, to be
perpetual curate of
Drypool,
Kingston upon Hull. He resigned his fellowship in 1829 on his marriage. In 1834 he accepted the living of
St John's,
Upper Holloway, in the gift of
Daniel Wilson who was then vicar of
St Mary's Church, Islington, which he held for twelve years. He was appointed a prebendary of
St Paul's Cathedral in 1846. When he first undertook the work there were 107 European clergy employed by the Society, and nine who were local people. When he died in 1873 these numbers had risen to 230 and 148 respectively. During his tenure of office 498 clergymen were sent abroad, all of them passing under his inspection; with most of them he as secretary maintained a regular correspondence. He was involved in the establishment of eight or nine bishoprics for the superintendence of the missionary clergy, and was often consulted in the appointments made. Venn is often quoted as encouraging the "euthanasia of missions," which meant that missionaries were to be considered temporary workers and not permanent. With a view to checking the
Atlantic slave trade on the west coast of Africa, Venn spent time in developing trade in African products. He had young Africans sent to England to learn methods of preparation of
cotton,
palm oil, and other articles of trade; and he paid visits to friends in
Manchester in the cotton industry. In his later years his position as an evangelical in the Church of England was recognised by his being placed on two royal commissions. The memorial in St Paul's was erected in 1875 to the designs of
Matthew Noble. Henry is
remembered (with
Henry and
John) in the Church of England with a
commemoration on 1 July. ==Works==