Author: Overton, Charles
Biography:
OVERTON, Charles (1805-89: ODNB)
He was born at Clifton, Yorkshire, on 13 Nov. 1805 and baptised two days later at St. Olave’s, Marygate, York, the sixth son of Rev. John Overton (1763-1838), Rector of St. Crux and St. Margaret, York, and his wife Elizabeth Stoddart, who had married in 1792. Intended as a civil engineer, he did not proceed to university. However, in 1829 he was ordained and was briefly assistant curate of Christ Church, Harrogate, before becoming curate at Romaldkirk, Yorks. He married Amelia Charlesworth (1809-85) on 3 July 1834 at Harrogate. They went on to have at least six children. In 1837 he was presented with the living of Clapham, West Riding, Yorks., and in 1841 to Cottingham, near Hull, where he died on 31 March 1889 and was buried there, leaving an estate of over £11,000. The work listed here was written to commemorate the restoration of York Minster after its partial destruction by the arsonist and religious fanatic John Martin (1782-1838). (Thomas Moore mocked Overton as “David the Second.”) Like his father he was strongly Calvinist and produced the usual array of sermons. His Cottage Lectures, or, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” Explained (1847-49) was well received, as were his lectures, The Expository Preacher (1850), on St. Matthew’s Gospel, and 23 lectures on The Life of Joseph (1866). He also wrote The History of Cottingham (1861). (“Overton, Charles” and “Overton, John [1762/3-1838],” ODNB 17 May 2022; ancestry.co.uk 17 May 2022; findmypast.co.uk 17 May 2022; CCEd 17 May 2022; Yorkshire Gazette 5 July 1834; York Herald 3 and 6 Apr. 1889; Thomas Moore, “To the Rev. Ch-rl-s Ov-rt-n,” Poetical Works [1841] 3: 307-8) AA