Comments
VENN
Adm. pens. at JESUS, Mar. 9, 1753. [Younger] s. of the Rev. Robert (1714), D.D., deceased (and Elizabeth, dau. of the Rt. Rev. Edmund Gibson, D.D., Bishop of London). [B. in 1735.] ' Matric. Easter, 1753; B.A. (13th Wrangler) 1757; M.A. 1760. Fellow, 1759-79. Became a Unitarian, 1784. One of the founders of the London Unitarian Society, 1791; but later withdrew, objecting to its use of the word 'idolatrous'. Author, Commentaries and Essays. Died, unmarried, Mar. 25, 1817, at Cambridge. Left £4000 to the University to found the Hebrew scholarships which bear his name. Brother of Thomas, Clerk of the House of Commons, who exposed the forgeries of Chatterton. (Gunning, I. 175; G. Mag., 1817, I. 285; D.N.B.)