John Venn FRS (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923), was a
British logician and
philosopher. He is famous for introducing the
Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including
set theory,
probability,
logic,
statistics, and
computer science.
John Venn was born in 1834 at Hull, Yorkshire. His mother, Martha Sykes, came from Swanland, near Hull, and died while John was only three. His father was the Rev. Henry Venn who, at the time of John's birth, was the rector of the parish of Drypool near Hull. Henry Venn, a fellow of Queens', was from a family of distinction. His own father, John's grandfather, was the Rev. John Venn who had been the rector of Clapham in south London. He was a leader of the Clapham Sect, a group of evangelical Christians centered on his church who campaigned for prison reform and the abolition of slavery and cruel sports.
John Venn's father (Henry) also played a prominent role in the evangelical Christian movement. The Society for Missions in Africa and the East was founded by evangelical clergy of the Church of England in 1799, and in 1812 it was renamed the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East. Henry Venn was secretary to this Society from 1841. He moved to Highgate near London in order to carry out his duties and held this position until his death in 1873.
John Venn was brought up strictly. It was expected that he would follow the family tradition into the Christian ministry. After Highgate School, he entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1853.[1] He was graduated in 1857 and shortly afterward was elected a fellow of the college. He was ordained as a deacon at Ely in 1858 and became a priest in 1859. In 1862 he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in moral sciences.
