As a boy, he was educated at Truro grammar school under Dr. Cardew and he entered St John's College, Cambridge, in the autumn of 1797, and was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman in 1801.

On 22 October 1803, he was ordained deacon at Ely, and afterwards priest, and served as Simeon's curate at Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, taking charge of the Cambridgeshire parish of Lolworth.

[3] Martyn wanted to offer his services to the Church Missionary Society, when a financial disaster in Cornwall deprived him and his unmarried sister of the income their father had left for them.

[5] He wrote in his diary: I prayed that…England whilst she sent the thunder of her arms to distant regions of the globe, might not remain proud and ungodly at home; but might show herself great indeed, by sending forth the ministers of her church to diffuse the gospel of peace.Martyn arrived in India in April 1806, and for some months he was stationed at Aldeen, near Serampur.

[6] In April 1809, he was transferred to Cawnpore, where he preached to British and Indians in his own compound, in spite of interruptions and threats from local non-Christians.

[3] On 1 October 1810, having seen his work at Cawnpore rewarded on the previous day by the opening of a church, he left for Calcutta, from where he sailed on 7 January 1811 for Bombay.

[6] From Bombay he set out for Bushire, bearing letters from Sir John Malcolm to men of position there, as also at Shiraz and Isfahan.

Although Martyn could not present the Bible in person, the Shah later wrote him a letter: In truth (said the royal letter of thanks to the ambassador) through the learned and unremitted exertions of the Reverend Henry Martyn it has been translated in a style most befitting sacred books, that is in an easy and simple diction...The whole of the New Testament is completed in a most excellent manner, a source of pleasure to our enlightened and august mind.At this time, he was seized with fever, and after a temporary recovery, had to seek a change of climate.

There, there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts, none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall be seen or heard of any more.On 16 October 1812 he died and was given a Christian burial by Armenian clergy.

[citation needed] His devotion to his tasks won him much admiration in Great Britain and he was the hero of a number of literary publications.

[3] Thomas Babington Macaulay's Epitaph, composed early in 1813, testified to the impression made by his career: Here Martyn lies.

John McManners wrote in his Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity that Martyn was a man remembered for his courage, selflessness and his religious devotion.

[8][3][9] In 1881, on the centennial of Martyn's birth, a trust was created in his name for the purpose of constructing a hall for a library and a place for public lecture on missions.