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VENN
Adm. sizar (age 18) at ST JOHN'S, June 28, 1764. S. of William, cattle salesman, of Richmonds, Yorks. B. at Bowes. Schools, Scorton and Sedbergh. ' Matric. Michs. 1764; B.A. (Senior Wrangler) 1768; M.A. 1771; B.D. 1779; D.D. 1784. Adm. Fellow, 1769, but removed on a mandate from the Bishop of Ely as Visitor; again adm. 1771; filled up 1786. Ord. deacon (London) May 29, 1768; priest (Peterb.) June 10, 1770. Lady Margaret Preacher, 1782. Chaplain to the King at Whitehall, 1778. Boyle Lecturer, 1792. R. of Owmby, Lincs., 1778-98. V. of Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Yorks., 1784-1822. Master of the Temple, 1797. R. of Fiskerton, Lincs., 1798-1822. Dean of Peterborough, 1798-1822. Deputy Regius Professor of Divinity, 1787-1802. Edited Beza, and published a Latin preface so full of bad Latin that he deemed it expedient to call in those copies that had been circulated in the University. In 1793 became prominent as prosecutor in connection with the proceedings against William Frend (Jesus College), who had been deprived of his Fellowship and tutorship because of his openly professed Unitarian or Socinian views; in this capacity he seems to have displayed more zeal than discretion, and rendered himself very obnoxious; in return his learning and slips in Latin were ridiculed, and his writings were sharply criticised by Porson in The British Critic, III; he was also fiercely attacked by Thomas Edwards (1776), Fellow of Jesus. Died Jan. 28, 1822, at Holme vicarage. (Sedbergh Sch. Reg.; Northants. Clergy; D.N.B.; Cant. Act Bk.; Gunning, I. chap. 9 and II. 49-53; St John's Coll. Adm., III. 698.)