Annals of a Clerical Family

In 1904, John Venn (1834–1923) published this memoir of his family, which produced Anglican clergymen for over three centuries. The book provides a microcosmic history of the Church of England during this period, as the Venns were persecuted by the Puritans, founded evangelical sects, and were involved in missions.

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John Venn (1834–1923), a leading British logician, moral scientist and historian of Cambridge, came from a noted family of clerics, although he resigned from the clergy as his philosophical studies led him away from Anglican orthodoxy. This family memoir, published in 1904, covers the careers of three centuries of Venn clergy, together with an outline of the family origins and pedigrees. The family came from Devon, where William Venn was ordained in 1595, and two of his sons followed him. Richard Venn was displaced and jailed during the Commonwealth. The author's father, John, was the founder of an evangelical sect at Clapham (where his father Henry had also been curate), and of the Church Missionary Society, an organisation in which the author's brother, Henry, played a leading role. The study provides a microcosmic history of the Anglican Church from the Reformation to the end of the nineteenth century.