Comments
VENN
Adm. pens. (age 21) at TRINITY, Apr. 23, 1802. S. of Stephen, of London. [B. Apr. 18, 1781.] School, Westminster. ' Matric. Michs. 1802; B.A. 1806; M.A. 1809. The disorderly parson. C. of Bourn, Cambs. Married, 1807, at Bourn, Ann Kimpton. He early began to display the eccentricity for which he afterwards became notorious. His anti-popish zeal was fanatical, and in 1812 he travelled all over England in a van, distributing tons of Protestant tracts. His pamphlet on the death of the Hon. Lawrence Dundas (Trinity, 1816), though absurd in its tone called attention to the lax supervision of undergraduates in lodgings in the town and led to the introduction of a system of licences. In opposition to the Catholic Relief Bill, he appeared at the Bar of the House of Lords, in 1829, to impeach the Duke of Wellington, but was summarily ejected though spared punishment on the ground that he was a lunatic. Strenuously opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act, and on June 11, 1836, assembled a large meeting of labourers on Parker's Piece to harangue them; his proceedings caused the magistrates and Home Secretary much anxiety about the public peace. On July 26, 1837, taken into custody and charged with creating a disturbance [p.250] and assaulting a constable. Appointed R. of Finborough, Suffolk, 1834, as a reward for his support of the Tory party; held the living until his death. Author, The Melancholy and Awful Death of Lawrence Dundas, Esq. Died Jan. 24, 1860, at Stowmarket, leaving a family much impoverished by his rash and miscellaneous benevolence. (Crockford; D.N.B.; Cambridge Review, Nov. 17, 1945; C. R. Hudleston.)