Author: Overton, John
Biography:
OVERTON, John (1796-1879: ancestry.co.uk)
He was probably born at Clifton, Yorkshire, in 1796 (no baptism has been traced), one of twelve children of Rev. John Overton (1763-1838) and his wife Elizabeth Stoddart (1767-1827), who had married in 1792. His father had strong Calvinist sympathies and was widely known for The True Churchmen Ascertained (1801), a defence of Evangelicalism. His brother Charles Overton (q.v.) also wrote poetry. He was educated at Richmond School, Yorks., and Trinity College, Cambridge (matric. 1815, BA 1815, MA 1823). He won the Seatonian Prize in 1825 for the work listed here. He entered the Established Church and was ordained priest in 1820. He was Vicar of Elloughton, Yorks, 1820-41 and Curate of Bilton, Yorks., 1824-1836. He was Curate (1825-36) and Rector (1836-77) of Sessay, near Thirsk, Yorks. This was a relatively poor parish with a population of around 350 in 1840 but the rectorship was worth £574 p.a. with the addition of the Rectory valued at £17 p.a. In the 1851 Census, his widowed sister Margaret Forrest was keeping house for him. He died on 18 Nov. 1879 and was buried at St. Cuthbert’s, Sessay, on 25 Nov., leaving an estate of under £8000. He never married. (ancestry.co.uk 17 May 2022; findmypast.co.uk 17 May 2022; “Overton, John [1762/3-1838],” ODNB 17 May 2022; GM, Aug. 1838, 224; York Herald 12 Nov. 1825, 20 Nov. 1879; St. Cuthbert’s, North Yorkshire, Monumental Inscriptions [1991]; White’s Directory of Yorkshire [1840]) AA