Comments
Venn notes or William Henry
Venn: Adm. pens. (age 17) at ST JOHN'S, Dec. 3, 1770. S. and h. of Henry, merchant, of St Michael's, Barbados. B. there June 28, 1753. Schools, Skipton and Hipperholme, Yorks. ' Matric. Michs. 1771; Prizeman; Scholar, 1771; B.A. (2nd Wrangler) 1775; M.A. 1778. Migrated to Sidney, Apr. 27, 1781, as Henry William; B.D. 1785; D.D. 1791. Fellow of Sidney, 1781. Tutor, 1788-91. On account of his talents, was selected to be the opponent of Isaac Milner (afterwards President of Queens' and Dean of Carlisle) when he kept The Splendid Divinity Act, alluded to by Richard Watson, Regius Professor of Divinity in Anecdotes of his own life. For a further account of this famous Disputation, see Henry Gunning, Reminiscences, II. 47. Ord. deacon (Ely) June 2, 1776. Minister of Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge, 1782-90. Whitehall Preacher, 1790. V. of Halifax, Yorks., 1790-1817; made an annual tour of his extensive parish, having in addition to the mother church, 14 subordinate chapels. A member of the Evangelical party and a friend and correspondent of Bryan Bury Collins (1771), of St John's, the popular preacher. Married Sarah, dau. of John Whitacre, Esq., of Woodhouse, Huddersfield, Sept. 19, 1793. J.P. for the West Riding. Died Dec. 11, 1817, at Heath, near Wakefield, at the house of his friend John Smyth, M.D. G. Mag., 1818, 1. 178, gives Dec. 18, as the date of death, but this appears to be a mistake. A monument to his memory was erected in Halifax Church.