Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Overton, John Henry
OVERTON, JOHN HENRY (1835–1903), canon of Peterborough and church historian, born at Louth, Lincolnshire, on 4 Jan. 1835, was only son of Francis Overton, surgeon, of Louth, a man of learning and of studious habits, by his wife Helen Martha, daughter of Major John Booth, of Louth. Educated first (1842-5) at the Louth grammar school, and next at a private school at Laleham, Middlesex, under the Rev. John Buckland, Overton went to Rugby in Feb. 1849, and thence obtained an open scholarship at Lincoln College, Oxford. He was placed in the first class in classical moderations in 1855 and in the third class in the final classical school in 1857, was captain of his college boat club, rowed stroke of its 'eight,' was a cricketer and throughout his life retained a keen interest in the game, and in his later years was addicted to golf. He graduated B.A. in 1858, and proceeded M.A. in 1860. In 1858 he was ordained to the curacy of Quedgeley, Gloucestershire, and in 1860 was presented by J. L. Fytche, a friend of his father, to the vicarage of Legbourne, Lincolnshire. While there he took pupils and studied English church history, specially during the eighteenth century. In 1878, in conjunction with his college friend, Charles John Abbey, rector of Checkendon, Oxfordshire, he published 'The English Church in the Eighteenth Century,' 2 vols., which was designed as a review of 'different features in the religion and church history of England' during that period rather than as 'a regular history' {Preface to second edition); it was well received and ranks high among English church histories; a second and abridged edition in one volume was published in 1887. Overton was collated to a prebend in lincoln cathedral by Bishop Christopher Wordsworth [q. v.] in 1879, and in 1883, on Gladstone's recommendation, was presented by the crown to the rectory of Epworth, Lincolnshire, the birthplace of John Wesley [q. v.], in whose career he took a warm interest. While at Epworth he was rural dean of Axholme. In 1889 he was made hon. D.D. of Edinburgh University. From 1892 to 1898 he was proctor for the clergy in convocation, and took an active part in its proceedings, speaking with weight and judgment. In 1898 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Lincoln to the rectory of Gumley, near Market Harborough, and represented the chapter in convocation. He was a frequent and popular speaker at church congresses. In 1901 he was a select preacher at Oxford, and from 1902 Birkbeck lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge. Early in 1903 Dr. Carr Glyn, the bishop of Peterborough, made him a residentiary canon of his cathedral; he was installed on 12 Feb., and as the canonry was of small value, he retained his rectory. He kept one period of residence at Peterborough, but did not live to inhabit his prebendal house, for he died at Gumley rectory on 17 Sept. of that year. He was buried in the churchyard of the parish church of Skidbrook near Louth, where many of his family had been interred. A high churchman and a member of the English Church Union, he appreciated the points of view of those who differed from him. He was an excellent parish priest, and was courteous, good-tempered, and humorous.
On 17 July 1862 Overton married Marianne Ludlam, daughter of John Allott of Hague Hall, Yorkshire, and rector of Maltby, Lincolnshire; she survived him with one daughter. As memorials of Overton a brass tablet was placed in Epworth parish church by the parishioners, a stained glass window and a reredos in Skidbrook church, and a two-light window in the chapter-house of Lincoln Cathedral.
As an historian and biographer Overton showed much insight both into general tendencies and into personal character; was well-read, careful, fair in judgment, and pleasing in style. The arrangement of his historical work is not uniformly satisfactory; he was apt to injure his representation of a movement in thought or action by excess of biographical detail. Besides his share in the joint work with Abbey noticed above, he published: 1. 'William Law, Nonjuror and Mystic,' 1881. 2. 'Life in the English Church, 1660-1714,' 1885. 3. 'The Evangelical Revival in the Eighteenth Century' in Bp. Creighton's 'Epochs of Church History,' 1886. 4. 'Life of Christopher Wordsworth, Bp. of Lincoln,' with Miss Wordsworth, 1888, 1890. 6. 'John Hannah, a Clerical Study,' 1890. 6. 'John Wesley,' in 'Leaders of Religion' serias, 1891. 7. 'The English Church in the Nineteenth Century,' 1894. 8. 'The Church in England,' 2 vols., in Ditchfield's 'National Churches,' 1897. 9. 'The Anglican Revival' in the 'Victorian Era' series, 1897. 10. An edition of Law's 'Serious Call' in the 'English Theological Library,' 1898. 11. 'The Nonjurors, their Lives, &c.,' 1902. 12. 'Some Post-Reformation Saints,' 1905, posthumous. 13. At his death he left unfinished 'A History of the English Church from the Accession of George I to the End of the Eighteenth Century,' a volume for the 'History of the English Church' edited by Dean Stephens [q. v. Suppl. II] and William Hunt; the book was edited and completed by the Rev. Frederic Relton in 1906. He contributed many memoirs of divines to this Dictionary, and wrote for the 'Dictionary of Hymnology,' the 'Church Quarterly Review,' and other periodicals.
[Private information; The Times, 19 Sept. 1903; Guardian, 23 Sept. 1903; obituary notices in Northampton Mercury, the Peterborough and other local papers.]