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VENN: Adm. pens. (age 16) at CHRIST'S, Feb. 6, 1800. [Only] s. of Abraham, linen-draper. B. [Dec. 27, 1783], at Hammersmith. School, Greenwich, 1783 [under Dr Charles Burney]. Matric. Michs. 1800; Scholar, 1800; Tancred student, 1800; 1st Chancellor's medal, 1804; B.A. (Senior Wrangler and 2nd Smith's prize) 1804; M.A. 1807; B.D. 1814; D.D. 1815. Fellow, 1804; tutor and praelector. Master, 1814-30. Vice-Chancellor, 1815-16. Regius Professor of Divinity, 1816-27. Adm. ad eundem at Oxford, 1834. Bishop of Bristol, 1820-7; Bishop of Lincoln, 1827-53. F.R.S., 1848. President of the Philosophical Society, 1827. As Regius Professor, revived the public lectures which had been suspended for more than a century. He performed a great work in reviving Church life throughout the diocese of Lincoln. He was the first to recall theological students to the study of the Fathers, and recent research has not much diminished the value of his published courses of lectures. Married, 1815, Eliza, eldest dau. of John Mortlock, banker, of Cambridge, and had issue. Author, Sermons, Lectures, etc. Died Feb. 18, 1853, at Riseholme. His portrait in oils is in the College Hall. Commemorated in the University by the prize bearing his name, which was founded in 1861 from the surplus of a Fund originally raised to erect a monument to him in Lincoln Cathedral. His collected Works were published in 1888. Grandfather of Abraham E. (1899) and John (1886). (C.U. Hist. Reg., 75 (note 17), and 171 (note 1); Peile, II. 347; Cant. Act Bk.; D.N.B.; C. R. Hudleston.)