CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE
Section III: Central Records

Part 20: Papers of Henry Venn (Secretary of CMS, 1846-1873) and Family

Extracts

Reel 301 Letter from Henry Venn, CMS to his wife Martha (née Sykes), 29 June 1835

“My own most dear & precious one, Tho’ I miss you every hour of every day yet I feel your absence most of all on the Sunday. In the preparation of my sermons – in the delivering of them – in my reflections upon them afterwards. I miss your wise & most encouraging counsel: & I perform my duty with far less confidence & satisfaction, A plain proof that I am blessed with a Help-meet in spiritual as well as temporal thing. Oh may I be enabled to return the benefit to you, in spiritual as well as in temporal blessings….

How I long for next Monday I shall then have earned a whole week’s holidays & shall stay till Saturday. The week after is alas! an awkward one again, as the consecration of the new church takes place on Tuesday the 14th & all the clergy are to attend. Fell comes up from the country on purpose  - so I must be present too….”

Reel 302 Letter from Henry Venn to his daughter c1840

“My precious Child

I must send you a few lines written on your birthday. I have thought much about you from the time I first awoke in the morning and I prayed to God to give you many happy birthdays: and to make you a good girl, so that you may make everybody else happy, I often think of a thing which we talked about the last morning at Brighton in my room, while I was dressing, that God can see us both, you at Brighton and me at Highgate, at the same time, and take care of us both. I am sure God loves you very much indeed, and so you must love Him and talk about Him to Johnny.

I went to your gardens but all the leaves from the trees had fallen upon them, and they looked very untidy. The chickens are grown large & Lion is quite well & the pig is a great beast now.

Tell Johnny I send my love to him and give baby a kiss for me.

Your dear Papa

Henry Venn”

REEL 302 Letter from Henry Venn to his children, Brighton 8 June 1840

“My sweet children

I have arrived here very safely. The journey was pleasant – the weather was cool, and the roads were not dusty. Before we got to Reigate one of the horses fell down and would not get up till we all got down from the coach and unharnessed the other horses. There were two ladies in the inside of the coach & they were much frightened – especially an old lady who had a little lap-dog with her…. For the greater part of the way we saw the new rail-way near the road but it is only half finished – they are digging some long tunnels under the hills – it will not be finished for a year….”

Reel 304 Letter to Henry Venn from William Wilberforce, House of Commons, 30 March 1819

“My Dear Sir

If you are so kind as to help me in this most difficult & disturbing emergency I should need no other friend; though if your wish for the other friend we named being also of the party arises at all from the idea that your responsibility would thereby be lessened, or that your comfort would be materially increased, I would use my best endeavours to prevail with our friend…”

Reel 304 Letter from Martha Venn (née Sykes) to Henry Venn, 1830

“Wednesday night

Had any one told me my preciousest & dearest darling that to write to you would be production of at least as much pain as pleasure, I should have denied the possibility of the existence of such a feeling, but now I feel that it is very real taking out a whole sheet of paper to write to you upon makes me feel most keenly that you are absent & that it will be long, very long before you return. I have done my best not to think of you which I thought my only chance of whiling away the tedious hours till you come back though how far it was likely I should succeed where everything reminded me of you & when I could not occupy myself in any way in which you were not forcibly brought to memory, I leave you to judge….”

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